Towards navigational risk identification on a remotely controlled ship with seafarers onboard

Maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) have been expected as the future direction in the maritime industry, with four types degrees of autonomy (DoA) defined by the International Maritime Organization. Most studies focus on identifying risk influencing factors (RIFs) on MASS with a high level of DoA, i.e., MASS DoA 3 or 4. However, RIFs identification on MASS DoA 1 or 2 has not been obtained a wide concern by academics. This paper focuses on risk identification analysis of the remotely controlled ship with seafarers onboard (i.e., MASS DoA 2) by incorporating failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and risk matrix. Firstly, we identify this kind of intelligent ship’s potential failure modes (FM) concerning the policy documents, existing publications and practical trials. Secondly, we proposed a three-level hierarchical model to identify the potential RIFs. Consequently, each RIF’s occurrence probability and associated effects are evaluated using the probability index (PI) and consequence index (CI) in a given risk matrix. Furthermore, the risk index of these RIFs under diverse FMs is obtained by aggregating the PI and CI. The risk identification analysis can provide critical RIFs for making risk control options for the remotely controlled ship with seafarers onboard by the shipping company, maritime safety administration, and ship designers.