Towards a Vision of Bridge Zero – Participatory Design of Automated Maritime Solutions

In recent years, Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS), that is, 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 unresolved challenges. We have explored autonomous ship technologies and developed concepts for MASS in a nationally funded ECAMARIS project. One central operational concept investigated in the project is the so-called Bridge Zero (B0), defined as a conditionally and periodically uncrewed bridge. A B0 workshop was organised among ECAMARIS project participants to collect perspectives and conceptions about possibilities and challenges for B0. The workshop participants included representatives both from maritime industry and academic organisations. Overall, the workshop resulted in a general agreement that improved safety is the key driver for the development of B0. 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 to be able in good time to alert the bridge personnel to take control in demanding conditions. In addition, 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.