Learning from automotive: Testing maritime assistance systems up to autonomous vessels

Testing is an integral part when developing a highly automated and autonomous safety-critical system. This paper will discuss the current situation of testing of highly automated and autonomous systems in the maritime domain. The development of such systems in the automotive domain is in a more advanced state then in the maritime domain. Due to the highly dynamic market situation much effort is invested, not only in developing the automated driving functions but also the necessary V+V methods. Therefore, the current state of the automotive domain will be discussed to identify adaption potentials for the maritime domain. Legal regulations as well as test methods and processes with focus on safety result in normative requirements which support the development of highly automated and autonomous vehicles. Standards such as ISO 17894 or ISO 26262 in combination with established test methods might be an answer to the challenges of developing safety-critical systems with a high complexity. The transfer potentials and an outlook on adapting the established V+V procedures to the maritime domain by using a testbed will be presented.