Unmanned ships and the international regulatory framework

Abstract

From the introduction:

Unmanned ships are those which are capable of controlled movement on the water in the absence of any on board crew. Instead, control is performed in essentially two ways. It can be performed by remote-control...On the other hand, the ship may be “controlled” autonomously.

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At present the operational usage of unmanned ships is modest when compared to their manned counterparts. They are presently used predominantly by the marine scientific research communities and also the defence sector for a broad range of marine operations. Today’s unmanned ships are also comparatively modest in size, with even the largest of unmanned ships seldom extending beyond 15-20m in length. However, this is about to change. Prototypes are currently being developed by a range protagonists to develop unmanned container carriers and passenger liners of comparable size and operational capability as manned ships performing these functions.

The exponentially developing nature of this unmanned technology makes regulatory preparedness an ever more pressing concern, not least because, at least in some types of operation, although there are obvious risks, there are also clear safety advantages to the exploitation of unmanned technology in carriage operations which come in the form of not having to expose seafarers to the still formidable perils of the seas.

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ORCID for Robert Veal: orcid.org/0000-0001-6118-8658

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