[QUOTE=Emrobu;190991]I remember one time, we we’re working between Bioko and Cameroon. Seismic ship, gear out, very limited in our ability to maneuver. We’d been working all night, and the sun was coming up. We were pointed at the mainland, and planning a kinda tricky sharpish turn fairly close to the shallows (as was planned in our survey). What wasn’t planned, and what nearly made the very well qualified, professional, totally-normally-on-top-of-things bridge officers nearly shit their pants, was the sudden discovery that we were completely surrounded by fishermen in dug-out canoes. Uncountable canoes. They didn’t appear on the radars. They didn’t have radios. They apparently had not seen the notice to navigation that told people where we were, what we were doing, and our inability to accommodate other ships/yachts/canoes. The only thing to do was to get on the bullhorn and shout “get out of the way,” in French and English, clench butt-cheeks tightly, and pray to the various divinities whose devotees were represented by the bridge crew. Far as I know, no one was hurt.
Unanticipated weird shit happens. Probably everyone has a story were only a human being could have figured out how to save the day. Automated ship obviously doesn’t have this advantage.[/QUOTE]
Yes there are such situations, which is one of the challenges that have to be worked out before autonomous ships are sent out on the open ocean, or more precisely into coastal waters with uncontrolled and uncontrollable activity. Luckily there are fewer such area now then in my young days sailing in Indonesia and the Melanesian Islands.
An autonomous ship coming up against a seismic vessel pulling an array of several sq. km. will not be a problem as Navtex warnings will be received at the Control Centre, enabling the operator to re-program the onboard system, or take over control remotely when necessary.
Nobody have said that developing autonomous ships is going to be easy, or done in a year or two, but that it will happen is a given. the question is when will it be legally possible to do so, more so then technical.
I know that Engineers thinks they are indispensable, but that is how you get disposable. What is wrong with moving off the ships to a shore based job of doing maintenance, repairs and programming anyhow?
PS> NOBODY say that ALL types of ships will be autonomous at anytime. I don’t see autonomous Seismic vessels, Fishing vessels, Offshore vessels doing complex tasks etc. Simple supply service to Platforms and Rigs maybe.
Hauling cargo across oceans yes. It is only a matter of a decade or two before that is reality.