Building an infrastructure for autonomous systems

摘要

Long before the disruption of Covid-19, 2020 was intended to be the year in which IMO would complete its scoping exercise to determine how safe operation of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) could be regulated. Originally agreed upon at MSC 100 in December 2018, the scoping exercise is intended as a root-and-branch review of all IMO instruments and to decide which of these would be affected by MASS, apropos of any regulatory amendments. MSC 100 was also significant in establishing the four different degrees of autonomy that would fall under consideration, ranging from decision support tools (Degree 1) to a fully self-determining ship (Degree 4). But for the wider industry there remains considerable uncertainty about autonomous ships. "When I meet people I very often have the feeling that we're talking about different things," laments Capt. Eero Lehtovaara, head of regulatory affairs for ABB Marine & Ports (and current chair of the One Sea multi-company partnership).