MASS

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What is a Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship?

At the time of writing, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has not yet agreed a definition of the term ‘Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship’ (MASS). The IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) agreed the need to define MASS at its 98th session on 13th June 2017 in response to input paper MSC 98/20/13 submitted by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). Some delegations supported the need for a definition to have a better understanding on the scope of the work, while others were in favour of defining it at a later stage in order not to limit the regulatory scoping exercise.

The definition of MASS used by Maritime UK in their Industry Code of Practice is:

‘a surface ship that is capable of being operated without a human on board in charge of that ship ...’.

IMO Scoping Exercise

At MSC 100 (December 2018), the Working Group on the regulatory scoping exercise for the use of MASS:

• Finalised the regulatory scoping exercise, including the template for the scoping exercise, the list of instruments & members volunteering to conduct the work, the plan of work and procedures.
• Agreed 9 principles to be taken into consideration when developing MASS trials, whioch will be used in the development of Guidelines on MASS trials.

In May 2018, MSC 99 started the scoping exercise.

At MSC 98 (June 2017), a proposal for a regulatory scoping exercise was submitted by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States (MSC 98/20/2). This input paper proposed a review of IMO instruments as a step towards understanding the regulatory implications arising from MASS. The committee agreed to include the scoping exercise in the 2018-2019 biennial agenda of the MSC and the provisional agenda for MSC 99.

Regulations and Recommendations

Maritime UK, which promotes the maritime sector in the UK, have produced an Industry Code of Practice for MASS, which provides operators with a set of guidance for responsible self-regulation.

Technology

A MASS needs the ability to establish situational awareness, monitor its own health, make decisions, and communicate information to external actors including shore side operators, and other ships. The elements that will be required to perform these functions include sensor fusion, control algorithms and communications systems.

MASS will be dependent on communications systems for monitoring and control. All MASS, whether remotely controlled or fully autonomous, will need human supervision and control from shore. Monitoring and control communication will need to be bidirectional with high bandwidth, minimal latency and supported by multiple redundant communications paths. Furthermore, all vessels over 300 gross tonnage require a GMDSS radio installation to meet the SOLAS Chapter IV (Radiocommunications) requirements; the applicability of these regulations will need to be considered in the IMO scoping exercise discussed above.

The development of control algorithms will be a gradual and iterative process, possibly building on existing decision support systems such as Integrated Navigation Systems (INS) and Integrated Bridge Systems (IBS). The control algorithm will enable a MASS to decide what action to take in the light of sensory information received to meet its twin aims of navigation and collision avoidance.

The control algorithm will require inputs from sensors such as radar, high definition cameras, thermal imaging and lidar. This sensor technology is already well developed and found in many forms of autonomous vehicle operation. A key challenge is how to combine these technologies in the most cost efficient way.