Across all sectors, technology is increasingly advertised as a means of improving the safety and effectiveness of specific tasks and operational environments. The maritime industry is no exception. Here, Dr Kate Preston explains why we need to fully understand the complexity maritime pilotage before we can integrate technology like autonomy.
Remote pilotage in the maritime sector
There is growing research examining how technological systems can support maritime pilotage, including those that could enable the act of pilotage to be conducted remotely. This concept of pilotage could involve pilots using sensors and cameras on the ships themselves to gain the necessary information which could then be used to direct the navigation of ships when entering and manoeuvring in a mandatory pilotage area. However, the concept will changes how “work-is-done”, by reshaping interactions within the system and introducing new challenges that may, in some cases, increase risk.Mitigating these risks requires science-based and objective decision support information for pilots’ organisations and authorities around the world. To that end, the CfAA is collaborating with the International Maritime Pilots’ Association (IMPA) on the first phase of the authoritative international study exploring and ground-truthing the concept of remote pilotage.
"A maritime pilot boards a ship every 10 seconds somewhere in the world and for good reason. Maritime pilotage is a very effective public service, reducing navigation and environmental risk from ships significantly, and keeping cargo flowing efficiently around the world.”
Matthew Williams, Secretary General of the International Maritime Pilot's Association
How we are creating a pilotage “as is” model
This starts by developing an “as is” model. To do this we are focusing on understanding the current sociotechnical interactions that occur during pilotage, and how this complexity contributes to systemic failures. This has been done through several concurrent approaches. Firstly, we looked at current documentation on the underlying processes involved with maritime pilotage. These documents were analysed using a work system model, which aims to highlight how different components within a system interact to produce outcomes (e.g. how people work within the physical environment or how external regulation influences how tasks are completed). This document review helped form an understanding of pilotage but may not fully represent the work system. To increase our understanding, we spoke to several fantastic pilots and visited Warsash Maritime School where we were able to experience the type of training pilots complete. A lucky few of us even had a shot in a scaled model! This provided us with a great foundation on which to build and we are continuing to speak with pilots to ensure our model accurately displays the interactions that occur before and during an act of pilotage.. . .
