Preparing for change in the maritime services in context of autonomous shipping: A case study focusing on Finnish maritime cluster stakeholders

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis

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Date

2017-12-11

Department

Major/Subject

Meritekniikka

Mcode

K3004

Degree programme

Master’s Programme in Mechanical Engineering (MEC)

Language

en

Pages

84

Series

Abstract

Unmanned, remote operated and autonomous shipping has been identified as one of the development paths with the potential to fundamentally transform the maritime transportation industry. Given that it is estimated that 80% or even 90% of all of the technology needed for the realisation of an autonomous ship already exists, feasible design solutions being engineered , and business ecosystems are under development. While technical development is essential for realising the autonomous vessel in practice, attention should also be paid to the development of the whole maritime system. This includes the various maritime stakeholders actively participating in the process of ensuring safe, sustainable and efficient sea passage and cargo operations. A good understanding of the legal basis underlying the activities of the various stakeholders, as well as their commercial roles, is important to co-create autonomous vessels which can be implemented in the operational realities of the maritime transportation context. In particular, the anticipated operational changes for the stakeholders involved in the implementation of autonomous ships should be considered to ensure fluent implementation of new technologies and operational concepts, for realising comprehensive, enabling changes to the regulatory framework. This thesis has three main goals. First, to contribute to the on-going research and development on autonomous shipping through providing new knowledge on concerns, challenges and opportunities of the thesis target group stakeholders and, to activate the stakeholders themselves to consider the possibilities introduced by the autonomous ships. Second, to provide an example how to demonstrate and concretise the future change from the perspective of the stakeholders, enabling them to consider the impacts of the change for their operational context. Finally, to raise awareness of the foreseen changes and concerns, facilitating discussions on whether there is a need for more comprehensive mechanisms to consider the impacts, and to elaborate development actions needed to ensure that the different maritime stakeholders are prepared and can better contribute to the introduction of the autonomous shipping. The methods for this study included a comprehensive literature review, but the most important and valuable data for the thesis was obtained from a series of in-depth interviews with experts from Finnish Maritime Cluster stakeholders. As a result, the operational interfaces between an autonomous ship and the target group stakeholders were mapped, foreseen changes and challenges related to future operation documented and some opportunities identified. In addition, the preparedness of the stakeholders is discussed and possible future activities identified.

Description

Supervisor

Kujala, Pentti

Thesis advisor

Goerlandt, Floris

Keywords

autonomous shipping, unmanned ship, maritime traffic, remote operated ship, vessel

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Citation

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201712188175

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[dipl] Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu / ENG