| dc.description.abstract | Background: While numerous studies have been carried out in the field of safety management of merchant maritime autonomous surface ships, no prior systematic review synthesising their results exists.
Objective: The aim of this paper is to systematically review peer-reviewed journal articles in order to collect all challenges in the safety management of merchant maritime autonomous surface ships identified therein.
Data Sources: Four databases – namely SCOPUS, Academic Search Elite, ScienceDirect and Web of Science – were utilised to search for relevant studies. To find the relevant literature, a Boolean search string combining the following terms was used: Automat*, autonom*, cargo, challeng*, craft*, manag*, marine, maritime, merchant, ocean, overcom*, safe*, sea, ship*, system*, unmanend, vehicle* and vessel*, where the asterisk serves as truncation operator.
Study Eligibility Criteria: Studies were selected to be included in the review if they were published in or after 2008, were published in a peer-reviewed journal, if a full text copy of the article was available, when the article focuses on merchant maritime autonomous surface ships and challenges related to their safety management, when search terms were used in the setting/for the meaning they were intended and if they were a non-duplicate study.
Results: The numerous identified technological, human element related and procedural challenges regarding the safety management of maritime autonomous surface ships were qualitatively synthesised, providing a summary of the results of the available primary research in the field.
Conclusion: Further research is necessary in order to overcome some of the identified challenges and ensure safe operations of maritime autonomous surface ships. | en_US |
