The Ocean-Going Autonomous Ship—Challenges and Threats

TLDR

Unmanned vehicles are common in air and sea, but sea use has been limited to small near‑shore platforms; recent experiments with larger cargo vessels on the high seas raise concerns about threats to other users, safety, reliability, and resilience to interference. The paper aims to describe the dangers specific to navigational systems and analyze the authors’ first experiences of an unmanned surface vessel transiting the busy English Channel between the UK and Belgium. The authors analyze the transit of a USV from the United Kingdom to Belgium and back across the English Channel, the world’s busiest shipping route. Experiments with larger cargo vessels designed to operate on the high seas are already underway.

Abstract

Unmanned vehicles have become a part of everyday life, not only in the air, but also at sea. In the case of sea, until now this usually meant small platforms operating near shores, usually for surveying or research purposes. However, experiments with larger cargo vessels, designed to operate on the high seas are already being carried out. In this context, there are questions about the threats that this solution may pose for other sea users, as well as the safety of the unmanned vehicle itself and the cargo or equipment on board. The problems can be considered in the context of system reliability as well as the resilience to interference or other intentional actions directed against these objects—for example, of a criminal nature. The paper describes the dangers that arise from the specificity of systems that can be used to solve navigational problems, as well as the analysis of the first experiences of the authors arising from the transit of an unmanned surface vessel (USV) from the United Kingdom to Belgium and back, crossing the busiest world shipping route—the English Channel.