Possible dangers of automation failures on board and measures to avoid the negative effects of these failures

Abstract

The first priority of the IMO (International Maritime Organization) is to ensure safety at sea. The ships are the critical elements of the shipping. The ships are the largest vehicles of the world and equipped with state of art management systems which are mostly furnished with highly automated systems. Any automated system failure may cause fatal accidents which hamper the human life, ship and environment as well as ports and terminals. Automated systems facilitate management of the ships and reduce manpower requirement. Unfortunately the seafarers assume these high technology products are very reliable and mostly neglects any possible failure on these systems. If we investigate seafarer’s education and training systems, curricula do not cover sufficient knowledge on operation principles and limitations of automated systems. This insufficiency negatively affects their counter actions in case of an automation failure which endangers safety of sea. The application of automation systems on board speedily pervades following the rapid technologic developments on merchant ships as well as on naval ships. That means automation failure will become rather important in the future. This study investigates possible reasons for automation failures and proposals to prevent it and reduce the negative effects of such incidents. Finally, it is intended to define measures covering automation failure versus human element on board.