Towards a Vision of Bridge Zero – Participatory Design of Automated Maritime Solutions
Authors: Koskinen Hanna , Laarni Jari , Liinasuo Marja , Hynninen Antti , Owen Douglas , Bolbot Victor , Chaal Meriam 
Published: June 2024

In recent years, Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS), i.e., ships which can operate, to a varying degree, independently of human involvement, have raised special interest in the maritime industry. Despite this, the development of MASS is still much under way, due to various challenges in all levels of maritime activity, including, e.g., equipment failure, human error, and defective interaction with the physical environment (Chang, Kontovas, Yu, Yang, 2021). We have explored autonomous ship technologies and developed concepts for MASS in a nationally funded research project (Business Finland, Enablers and Concepts for Automated Maritime Solutions - ECAMARIS). A central operational concept investigated in the project is the so-called Bridge Zero (B0), defined as a conditionally and periodically uncrewed bridge. According to the starting point in ECAMARIS for a B0 concept, the bridge can be left completely unmanned and unattended for a defined period in open sea conditions, thus freeing the bridge crew, e.g., for other duties or rest. A B0 workshop was organized among ECAMARIS project participants to collect perspectives and conceptions about possibilities and challenges for B0. The workshop participants consisted of a multidisciplinary group, including representatives both from maritime industry and academic organizations. The total number of participants was 11. The workshop comprised four main exercises: 1) warm-up (generating the worst possible solution for B0), 2) B0 ideation (specifying the endpoint goal “operating an uncrewed bridge under defined conditions” and identifying functions that must be performed to satisfy the goal), 3) barrier identification, and 4) closing discussion.Participants were divided into three heterogeneous groups that worked through the exercises. Each group documented their conceptions on a large sheet of paper. The sheets and the audio-recorded wrap-up discussion constitutes the output of the B0 workshop. Workshop results were analyzed by categorizing responses and identifying main themes and sub-themes. Overall, there was general agreement that improved safety is the key driver for the development of B0. The minimum requirement is that the autonomous system is capable of executing the voyage plan of the ship and achieve and maintain a safe navigational watch at the same level of safety as a human Officer of the Watch (OOW). To that aim, it is important that the system has, in a sense, an understanding of its capabilities and limitations with relation to task requirements (McDermott et al., 2018) to be able in good time to alert the bridge personnel to take control in demanding conditions. Several sociotechnical, economic, and regulatory barriers and constraints delaying the fast implementation of B0 were identified in the workshop. Some strategies for how to overcome them were also proposed and explored.REFERENCESChang, C. H., Kontovas, C., Yu, Q., & Yang, Z. (2021). Risk assessment of the operations of maritime autonomous surface ships. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 207, 107324.McDermott, P., Dominguez, C., Kasdaglis, N., Ryan, M., Trahan, I., & Nelson, A. (2018). Human-machine teaming systems engineering guide. MITRE CORP BEDFORD MA BEDFORD United States.