Human Factor and Ergonomic Issues in Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships

Abstract

The development and operation of the MASS (Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship) is being actively discussed for more efficient and safer maritime transportation solutions. The autonomous navigation technology has positive aspects such as the prevention of marine accidents, improvement of fuel efficiency of ships and cost reduction, and negative aspects such as job loss, task change, and security problems. It is expected that there will be new human factor and ergonomic issues such as the situation awareness of remote operators, because the shore-based control will be conducted when fully autonomous ships are in operation. In this paper, we consider major human factor and ergonomic issues that should be factored in the development and operation of MASS.