MarIus

2.1.1 The global leap towards autonomous commercial shipping

The IMO refers to the developments in autonomous shipping as "rapidly evolving".^{(1) The International Maritime Organization, Autonomous shipping (2025).} Furthermore, the maritime autonomy market has been expected to almost double in value from 2023 to 2028.^{(2) Sivori and Brunton (n 7) 14.} Certain MASS are already operating with full autonomy within national waters, like the MV Yara Birkeland in Norway.^{(3) The maiden voyage as fully autonomous took place in March 2023. See Yara, Yara Birkeland, two years on (April 28 2024).} A broader commercial deployment of MASS is likely in the future, including, eventually, on the high seas. Since MASS are expected to reduce the total costs of the shipowners, it is plausible that, once the technology and legal framework are established, many shipowners will need to adopt MASS and autonomous systems into their fleets to remain competitive.^{(4) Lloyd’s Register and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). Creating a framework for efficiency, safety and compliance (Lloyd’s Register 2024) 34.} In recent years, the global shipping community has observed significant breakthroughs in extensive, interdisciplinary projects such as the AUTOSHIP in Norway,^{(5) SINTEF, Breakthrough for autonomous ships (2023).} the MEGURI2040 in Japan,^{(6) Jasmina Ovcina Mandra, 'Japan takes its autonomous shipping to the next level' Offshore Energy (21July 2023).} and the KASS in South Korea.^{(7) Kuehne+Nagel, South Korea sets sights on fully autonomous ships by 2030 (8 July 2024); Korea Autonomous Surface Ship Project (2025).}

2.1.2 The concept of autonomous navigation systems (ANS)

For the purpose of this thesis, I define the concept of ANS inspired by the latest draft of the MASS Code from the IMO.^{(8) Maritime Safety Committee Session 109 Agenda item 5, Development of a Goal-Based Instrument for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) (5th of December 2024) (The draft MASS Code).} This refers to ANS as systems "which has the functionalities of situational awareness, route planning and determination for collision and grounding risk avoidance, ship’s heading, speed and track control".^{(9) The draft MASS Code Section 4.7} This definition distinguishes ANS from integrated navigation systems (INS), which feature complex automatic functions, but lack autonomous qualities.^{(10) ANS and INS are further differentiated in light of the AIA in Section 3.2.1 below.} INS are currently deployed by shipowners operating "conventional ships",^{(11) Melih Akdağ, Petter Solnør and Tor Arne Johansen, 'Collaborative collision avoidance for Maritime Autonomous SurfaceShips: A review' (2022) 250 Ocean Eng. 110920, p. 1109234.} and have been regulated by IMO law for many years.^{(12) The Maritime Safety Committee Resolution 252(83), Adoption of the Revised Performance Standards for Integrated Navigation Systems (INS) (8 October 2007).}

Furthermore, this definition of ANS considers the systems as a whole, acknowledging that not all components of the systems must necessarily be located on board the ships. Hardware components such as cameras, lidars and radars will, of course, be on board.^{(13) DNV GL, Study of the risks and regulatory issues of specific cases of MASS – Part 2 (European Maritime Safety Agency 25 March 2020) 23.} However, certain hardware components providing input for the software systems may, for instance, be located on flying drones.^{(14) Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, Piotr Wołejsza, Łukasz Nozdrzykowski, Piotr Borkowski, Paweł Banaś, Ja-nusz Magaj, Jarosław Chomski, Marcin Mąka, Sylwia Mielniczuk, Anna Pańka, Paulina Hatłas-Sowińska, Eric Kulbiej and Magdalena Nozdrzykowska, 'The autonomous navigation system of a sea-going vessel' (2022) 261 Ocean Eng. 112104, 112108-112110.}

Similar to the hardware, it is possible that essential software components may also not be located on board. A key issue addressed in both research questions of this thesis is where the autonomous qualities of the systems – metaphorically, the "brain" – will be located. This ultimately concerns the designs of the ANS, which are difficult to predict at this stage.

For instance, it is conceivable that the software that in fact independently makes the navigational decisions based on input from land, other ships, and its own equipment, is solely located on board the ship. That would place the autonomous qualities of the system on board the ship, leaving humans resuming control of navigation, either on board or in a Remote Operations Centre (ROC),^{(15) I base my understanding of a ROC on the definition provided in the draft MASS Code Section 4.39.} as the navigational alternative.^{(16) Such designs of MASS and ANS are seemingly presumed by Oskar Levander in 'Autonomous ships on the high seas' IEEE Spectrum Magazine (Vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 26-31, February 2017) on page 29.}

However, one can also envision technical solutions where there are only automatic functions in the software on board the ships that, presumably via satellite, collect, organize and send raw data about the surroundings of the ship to autonomous software located in a ROC on land. Based on input from the ship, the autonomous software on land can then make navigational decisions that it sends back to the software on board the ship, which simply executes the commands it receives. One could even imagine a scenario in which multiple ships are connected to the same autonomous software system on shore. This system could coordinate input from all vessels, make navigational decisions on their behalf, and transmit these back to the ships.^{(17) Such a design could be a natural answer to the requirement in the draft MASS Code that an autonomous navigation system "should effectively integrate and coordinate with other ship systems to prevent conflicting operational commands". See the draft MASS Code Section 17.3.1 EP3.}

2.1.3 Thesis delimitation – focus on commercial cargo shipping

The scope of the research questions are limited to focus on ANS used in commercial cargo shipping. This excludes, for instance, ANS used in private or military settings. The purpose of this delimitation is to avoid unnecessary complexity in addressing the boundaries of the general scope of the AIA.^{(18) Thesis Section 3.2.}