engleski

Effect of potential autonomous short-sea shipping in the Adriatic Sea on the maritime transportation safety

Rapid technological development, wireless communication, and monitoring, growing environmental awareness, alternative fuels, and harsher regulations are continuously pressuring maritime transportation and shipbuilding. The maritime sector is exploring ways to reduce cost and emissions but at the same time to increase safety and energy efficiency. Autonomous shipping is an emerging topic, where technical, economic, safety, and environmental aspects are still not mature enough to significantly increase the percentage of autonomous vessels in the global fleet. The reduced crew onboard brings savings and a lower risk of human-induced errors that can lead to human casualties and environmental disasters. However, autonomous vessels monitored from the shore require a high-quality and reliable communication system. The technologies needed for autonomous navigation already exist and it is necessary to find the optimal way to combine their safety, reliability, feasibility, and cost- effectiveness. Short-sea shipping is an ideal candidate for developing and testing new technologies due to shorter routes, low energy demand, and frequent port calls. The Croatian part of the Adriatic coastline with numerous islands and developed tourism activity is extremely sensitive to congestion and marine pollution. This paper presents the analysis of Croatian maritime accident reports to assess whether the accident would have happened if the ship had been autonomous, and once the accident had happened - would its consequences have been different.

autonomous shipping ; maritime safety ; maritime accidents ; short-sea shipping

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