# Costs and Benefits of Autonomous Shipping--A Literature Review
## 1 Introduction
Another example of the enterprise leading to the development of autonomous coastal feeder was Yara Birkeland, as the result of cooperation between Norwegian chemical export company Yara and Kongsberg--a maritime technology developer. Yara Birkeland was initially expected to be ready for operation in 2020, with fully autonomous operations in 2022 [18]. As per 2020, the project is on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the changed global outlook [19], thus, reflecting an uncertainty in market conditions directly related to the development of MASS. Another project with a different scope than mentioned above is called Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA). It was a concept led by Rolls Royce to prepare the design and specification of the autonomous ships suitable for inland waterways [20]. However, only in the MUNIN project, the anticipated costs are evaluated and discussed. There are three categories of costs related to the operation of autonomous ships, that is, in sea-passage for 216 days. Operating costs consisted of fixed costs including maintenance, insurance, and administration costs (OPEX). Voyage costs were defined as variable costs associated with a particular voyage. These include fuel, cargo handling, and port call cost. Capital costs (CAPEX), in turn, were defined as all the expenses regarding purchase of the ship (construction cost, cost of financing, etc.) [21; 22]. The cost of operating the autonomous bulker was compared to a conventional vessel. Finally, a study different from above, since focusing only on economic feasibility of some prospective configurations of autonomous ships in short-sea-shipping, was presented by [23]. Therein, the analysis of economic viability of a concept of a liner shipping network design (LSND) was performed, and the operational costs for mother ship and daughter ships are estimated, and the utilization rate was calculated. Despite the growing public and research interest in autonomous ships, it appears that relatively little scientific effort has been devoted to the issue of evaluating economic benefitsstemming from implementing these solutions, compared to other aspects, for example safety [24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34; 35; 36; 37; 38]. The descriptions of economic attractiveness of the projects described earlier in this section do not contain the detailed information about components affecting the economic viability of the anticipated developments. These encompass the following: insurance issues, the costs of operating the ocean-going autonomous containerships, the cost of maintenance and repairs on board the ship during voyage, the increasing cost of protection against cyber piracy, monetization of NOx and CO2 emissions, and the size of an autonomous fleet profitable for the shipowner. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine the cost categories related to operation of autonomous ships (CAPEX and OPEX), including the costs of a Shore Control Centre allowing for safe navigation. To this end, a literature survey is performed to establish the state-of-the-art system concerning the use of autonomous shipping in the economic context. The paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, the methods used in the study are described. Section 3 presents the results, including state-of-the-art qualities in economic issues concerning bulk and container vessels. A discussion is provided in Section 4, while Section 5 summarizes and concludes the paper.