Risk Contours for RemoteOperations Centres forMaritime AutonomousSurface Ships

Sammanfattning: To monitor and control maritime autonomous surface ships in a land­based remote operations centre leads to several advantages compared to today when a whole crew is needed on board. For example, less humans would be required to control the same amount of ships, less personnel would be required to live or stay on the ship for a longtime and risk being injured or die in accidents or storms. To facilitate and ease a remote operators work, a risk contour could be a valuable tool and utility. A risk contour is a visual tool on the user interface used by the remote operator and illustrates an area around the ship. When a risk contour collides with another objector another risk contour, a warning notifies the operator of a dangerous situation. In case the operator has multiple monitors, the warning informs the operator to focus on the concerned monitor and Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS). In this project, risk contours have been researched through a background study, literature study and a case study. In the case study the risk contours were tested in a simulation environment by experienced test persons in the field. The test data was analysed and the opinion of the testers were gathered through simulations and reviewed with questions. The data from the testing showed that the risk contour affected the tester by increasing their risk awareness by increasing distances to other objects or ships and made them act earlier in riskful situations. The feedback from the simulation and the interviews regarding the proposed risk contour was overwhelmingly positive. Understanding the risk contour and the changed risk contour in the different scenarios were highly rated on scales from the participants. The conclusions from the thesis were that wind and currents are the two most relevant factors when studying environmental factors affecting the position of a MASS. The conclusion about which mechanical system was the most relevant, and will affect the risk contour the most when the system has reduced function, was concluded to be the rudder. The study shows that the risk contour for the MASS should be directed towards the relative course over ground when affected by wind and currents. The study also shows that the risk contour should remain the same but be extended when the vesselis affected by reduced manoeuvring ability. Lastly, conclusions about the results from the case study, were that the risk contour both is useful and helpful for the participants.