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Autonomous vessels, AI, and Piloting.  (Part 2)


Captain Ricardo Caballero


I still have not learned enough to have a well founded opinion on what to expect of AI and Autonomous vessels. Even if I did, it would only be that, an opinion. 

What I can certainly do, based on my piloting experience, is try to figure out how all these technology would be implemented.

Let's imagine that Autonomous ships are already in service worlwide.   Now let's say that a ship begins its voyage from point A somewhere in Europe, crosses the Atlantic, transits the Panama Canal, and then continues to point B, San Francisco. This is a typical trip for a fair amount of ships out there.

The question is: to which degree, and during which parts of the journey is the ship exercising its Autonomy? And when I say autonomy, I mean without having the need of human interacting or making decisions. Isn't that what Autonomous mean after all?

 Could the ship leave the terminal without Pilot? Probably.

 The possibility of not requiring the service of a Pilot will depend on the location and characteristics of the harbor ( proximity of the port facilities to open seas, for example)  and the maneuvering equipment with which the ship is fitted.

(Let's assume that port state regulations have already erased the word "compulsory" in regards to the use of a pilot. And that everything else, including insurance has been laid out to allow autonomous ships sail, and of course, everything is under IMO compliance) 

We can say that the ship departs in an "autonomous "kind of way." (would someone let go its lines?) It then sails through the Atlantic under the "commands" of Artificial Intelligence AI, avoiding collision, sorting out weather, and making all kinds of "intelligent decisions" as information is being collected and processed by AI software.

In spite of such ship being autonomous it will still require a team of experts in technology, navigation, and marine engineering, to monitor its voyage, all of them sitting comfortable inside a control room somewhere on land. ( sounds like these could be the seafarers of the future) It will require, I firmly believe, of an array of back up systems for support in case there is a mechanical  failure or a software glitch. ( like the one that caused the Boeing crash)

After crossing the Atlantic, the autonomous ship arrives at the Panama Canal  breakwater entrance. Will it need a pilot to pass by "itself" through it? Of course it won't. With the assistance of shore based stations AI can easily make it across the breakwater. "She" will then be hooked to the AI assistant system from the Panama Canal  (hopefully there would be one by then) which will feed her with information pertinent to her transit. ( which has already eliminated most of the traffic controllers).

The highlights of the information, besides traffic (from other autonomous ships) will be the time to be at the locks. But wait, the Panama Canal old locks have locomotives to assist ships move safely from chamber to chamber. And the new locks do not have locomotives at all. Unless the locks are modified in such a way that ships do no need locomotives anymore, the Panama Canal will have to provide a crew to attach the locomotive wires to the ship. This means that ships would need a way to arrange boarding facilities for the canal crew to get aboard. There goes its "autonomy" again, unless the boarding arrangements are deployed automatically by AI.

 As you notice, we have not made it through the first set of locks yet and some issues have come up to the surface. A heavy laden ship would likely need tug assistance. Unless it has been upgraded to meet the requirements for autonomous vessels, or it is a "new built" fully in compliance. Super strong bow thrusters, omnidirectional propulsion systems, sensors all around the hull, and much more would likely be needed to transit through the tight space that is a lock.


I do not underestimate the power of technology. It is already here making our lives a lot easier, while at the same time reducing labor.  My argument is more related to the implementation of the technology that makes ships autonomous. I see it happening very far in the future. And once autonomous ships commonplace there will be new issues: hackers, viruses, software glitches, etc.

I hope to live long enough to see autonomous ships, I mean real ships, taking over the oceans. 

However, given the time it will take autonomous ships to materialize at a larger scale, seafarers would still be needed for a long time. AI is still taking baby steps in the shipping industry, it won't be ready to walk any time soon.

Evidently, if we survived climate change and other threats to humanity, in the very far future seafarers (including pilots) most likely be remembered as something from the past.  Piloting will take another form, perhaps that of a future VTS operator with knowledge in both AI and piloting. We will see. 








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