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1 INTRODUCTION

The maritime world is changing more rapidly than

ever before. Decarbonisation, globalisation,

digitalisation and last but not least – pandemic-

related economic crisis resilience-seeking are just few

of the trends affecting our entire civilization. And the

maritime industry is not immune to these trends. As a

matter of fact, it is a driving force for some of them –

just to note that a vast majority of global trade is done

by the use of merchant vessels, thus allowing for

globalisation of commodities flow.

Meanwhile, the digitalisation of shipping consists

not only in improved data exchange processes among

involved parties, big data analysis and utilization of

block-chain technologies [1]. The ultimate goal (at

least for some of the industry actors) is to make

vessels navigate themselves across the oceans safely

and efficiently [2]. In order to achieve this, a huge

change would be required in multiple aspects of

global shipping industry such as: legal system,

education and training, hull and equipment design,

external services. Among the latter there are not only

insurance or communication, but also hydrography

[3].

In the age of ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and

Information System) being compulsory for most of

the sea-going vessels, the art of chart-work may seem

somewhat forgotten, at least by younger generations

of navigators [4]. This however does not change the

fact that a huge workload, know-how and a sense of

art must be dedicated to enable ECDIS to present

what it is to present: a model of vessel’s surroundings

and for a navigator to develop what (s)he is to

develop: a situational awareness [5]. From her/his

perspective, this complex process of converting

topography into a digital file presented on a screen is

done somewhere in a background and only its effects

are visible. No further consideration can be paid to

the process during bridge watch that consumes all the

mental capabilities of the navigator. With ships

gradually becoming autonomous or unmanned, this

With Regard to the Autonomy in Maritime Operations –

ydrography and Shipping, Interlinked

. Wróbel & A. Weintrit

Gdynia Maritime University

, Gdynia, Poland

ABSTRACT: With change being the only thing that is constant, modern world is undergoing a disruptive

change to many aspects of everyday life. Covering 70% of our planet, oceans and industries connected with

them are of no exception. The apparent drive towards autonomization in shipping will not only change the way

vessels are navigated, but will affect virtually all services needed for the vessels to be navigated. These include

not only the design of ships themselves, training of their crews, remote supervision of onboard processes, but

also the extremely important - yet not always appreciated - domain that allows for a safe navigation: maritime

hydrography. This paper discusses some insights on how the autonomous vessels and future hydrographers

may benefit from each other.

http://www.transnav.eu

the

International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safe

ty of Sea Transportation

Volume 14

Number 3

September 2020

DOI:

10.12716/1001.14.03.29

746

exposure to the effects of hydrographers’ work will

diminish even further – but not its extreme

importance.

The drive towards autonomy is also visible in

hydrography itself with some operations already

being performed by autonomous equipment –

airborne, surface and submersible [6]. The rationale

behind this trend lies in improved operational

capabilities, lower cost and comparable accuracy.

With the trend of autonomizing operations of

hydrographers as well as navigators – the creators

and users of hydrographic data (see Fig.1&2.) –

potential synergies and overlaps can be sought for the

benefit of both parties.

Figure 1. Autonomous Surface Vessel for bathymetry

mapping, note remote operators’ station on top [7]

Figure 2. Remote operation station for autonomous ship,

note nautical chart displayed [8]

2 STATE OF THE ART

Autonomy is defined as the ability of the system to act

without direct human intervention [9]. As a matter of

fact, it can take many facets or degrees to which a

system can operate autonomously [10]. All in all, even

the most sophisticated system can eventually reach a

point where a human action is required: maintenance

or remote control, for instance.

The idea of a remotely controlled boat has first

been published by Nikola Tesla as early as in 1898

[11]. However, the technological progress made

autonomous boats feasible only recently [12], [13].

While there is a multitude of potential applications,

several were explored to a greater extent than others.

Among the former are remote sensing including

hydrography [14], [15] and military applications [16].

Meanwhile, commercial shipping lags behind [17],

[18], potentially due to the necessity of involving

greater number of actors into the operations, global

scale of operations, as well as legal issues [19].

Regardless the purpose, an autonomous boat is to

achieve it without or with limited human

intervention. To this end, this means that a

sophisticated control system shall be developed to

move the vehicle around and enable it to fulfil its

mission. In order to achieve this, the mission shall be

defined and resources for such completion provided,

too. On top of that, a situation awareness module

shall be implemented so that the vehicle does not end

up colliding with an obstruction or other vehicle

operating in the same area. On the other end of the

spectrum, it can be lost forever at vast areas of the

ocean, floating endlessly, dead in the water.

Hydrographic drones can operate on surface or

underwater. Depending on the purpose, they can be

equipped with echo-sounders, side-scan sonars, sub-

bottom profilers or other equipment. A variety of

technical solutions for control exist, including remote

one as well as full autonomy [20]. They can relay the

obtained data or store it on board for future transfer.

Meanwhile, autonomous merchant ships are

envisaged to haul cargo between ports. Here too, a

variety of concepts exists with different approaches to

the issue of crewing, autonomy levels, and means of

control. However, with ultimate plan of allowing for

world-wide operations, a magnitude of social and

technical challenges is greater. In order to solve these,

a concept of shore-control centre (SCC) has been

developed – a shore-based facility from which fleets

of ocean-going vessels could be supervised and

controlled. The rationale behind implementation of

autonomous vessels lies in improved working

environment, cost reductions, improved safety, and

reduced environmental impact [21].

Both hydrographic drones and merchant vessels

are similar with respect to the general concept of

performing complicated tasks autonomously and

have similar design philosophy. There are, however,

important differences between these domains

including that: (1) their missions are different and (2)

technological readiness of the solutions is different

(see Fig.3).

While there are multiple units successfully used in

hydrography [6], [23], autonomous merchant

shipping is a relatively new concept with only few

vessels operational worldwide, mostly as prototypes

or a proof-of-concept [17], [24]. More importantly,

most of these trials are done in restricted waters while

it is expected that autonomous merchant vessels (also

referred to as Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships,

MASS) will exploit its full potential during ocean

passages rather than in near-shore navigation [25].

The delayed development of the merchant shipping

concepts provides some important benefits, such as

learning from the problems apparent and solved

through the development of similar domains [12],

[26]. Having skipped at least some of the childhood

diseases, the development of lagging domain can be

smoother.

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Figure 3. An operational hydrographic drone (top, [6]) and

an autonomous vessel under construction (bottom, [22])

3 A SYNERGY EMERGING

As the purpose of operating hydrographic drones is

to gather data related to environment, these platforms

shall move along pre-programmed paths (profiles) to

allow on-board sensors to detect sea bottom features

with sufficient reliability and accuracy. In order to

meet international standards for accuracy of

bathymetry data [27], all environmental sensors shall

operate with maximum efficiency – not only side-scan

sonars, echo-sounders etc., but also position-fixing

devices.

Meanwhile, the very purpose of merchant ships,

including prospective autonomous ones, is to haul

their cargo between ports. They also need to meet

certain requirements pertaining to the precision of

navigation as well as equipment installed on board

and its operation. With the aim of making

autonomous merchant vessels at least as safe as

conventional ones [28], it can hardly be imagined that

these standards are loosened for this novel and yet-to-

be-proven technology. Rather, the prospective MASS

will be packed with redundant, cutting-edge

environmental sensors and other kinds of equipment

to ensure the reliability of the processes [5]. Data from

such sensors would need to undergo a fusion process

in order to be validated and to extract additional

features of the system or environment. This creates an

interesting opportunity. Since all of the following

must be met:

1 the control algorithms of autonomous merchant

vessels need to obtain accurate information on the

under-keel-clearance to navigate safely especially

in shallow, near-shore waters;

2 position of the vessel must be determined with

high precision, accuracy and reliability;

3 efficient means of communication between ship

and SCC must be ensured

then why can’t the collected data be used for the

purposes of creating or updating bathymetry of the

area?

The concept of the proposed data-exchange system

is presented in Fig.4. Herein, bathymetrical data

collected by MASS and verified against global-

referenced position are transferred to a fleet

management centre via a satellite communication link

(or any other means of efficient data transfer). Such

centre is expected to receive at least periodical reports

from MASS for safety reasons [29]. Once cross-

checked against revealing potentially confidential

commercial information, relevant datasets could be

relayed to the relevant hydrographic office in order to

update their model of area. If only MASS are not

legally restricted to navigate along prescribed routes,

vast areas of the sea could soon be covered by a de-

centralized fleet of vessels carrying bathymetry

sensors. High-density bathymetry charts could be

developed using thus created data provided that

accuracy standards are maintained on every step of

the process.

It shall be noted that an opportunity for such data-

exchange did not exist to date. Present-day,

conventional ships are usually equipped with one

single-beam echo-sounder, satellite navigation

systems that not always meet the hydrographic

standards [27], [30] and need not to relay

environmental data to any party. As a matter of fact,

technical capability of transferring any data at high

seas with satisfactory rate has only become available

in recent years together with the development of

commercial satellite communication systems.

Moreover, MASS pre-implementation period

appears to be a perfect time for making initial

preparations for realizing the said concept. Increased

availability of bathymetry data would benefit

virtually all actors active in maritime domain,

including operators of MASS producing the original

datasets. All in all, accuracy and reliability of water

depth data affects the process of passage planning – a

process that must be carefully performed for

autonomous vessels having limited means of in-situ

human intervention. Not to mention the fact that

corrected nautical charts would be widely published.

In this sense, prospective MASS can be regarded as

a de-centralized swarm of hydrographic drones,

serving their secondary purpose while fulfilling the

primary mission of moving commodities around the

world. This will not make the actual hydrographic

drones obsolete as there will still be plenty of room at

the bottom – in areas that MASS cannot reach due to

the draft (shallow waters), or to which their sensors

will not be suited (deep waters, for instance).

However, near-shore waters, port approaches, straits

etc., could be well covered without additional effort

or cost except for data storage/transfer and

processing.

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Figure 4. The proposed data-exchange system for de-centralized hydrography

4 SUMMARY

The ongoing digitalisation of the industry did not

leave hydrography services or shipping untouched.

With emergence of new operational concepts within

particular domains, potential for cross-industry,

interdisciplinary synergies can be sought to develop

new, innovative solutions. To achieve this, at least a

means of communication and dissemination between

members of different scientific and industrial

communities shall be established to identify each

other’s needs and assets. Within the emergent domain

of autonomous merchant shipping, there might exist

an opportunity of using therein obtained

environmental data to improve safety of navigation.

Paper was presented on-line at World

Hydrography Day by Hydrographic Office of the

Polish Navy in Gdynia, Poland, in June 2020.

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