Maritime automation, and emergency handling - software: Design, system integration and quality

Increased usage of software based systems and components within the maritime industry is challenging with respect to safety, security and service continuity. We have studied the risks with increased automation onboard ships in a two year multinational joint industry project. The study also included how to deal with emergency situations due to automation system failure. As part of the study we interviewed several individuals from ship owners, ship operators, yards as well as equipment suppliers. Many of the interviewed actors have informal and ad-hoc strategies for managing the software integrated on ships and associated systems. This paper identifies the need for protocols and supportive systems to match these challenges. The explicit need for improvements in life cycle processes, system architecture and quality assurance is also identified as a consequence of the increased exposure to software and software integration with related faults and failures. The paper proposes some recommendations with the purpose of dealing with these challenges.