Unmanned ships are increasingly conquering the world's oceans. While autonomous watercraft are already being used in various areas such as research and naval operations, there is still one crucial hurdle: Until now, ship drones have not been able to communicate autonomously with manned ships by radio.
Norwegian scientists are now working on a solution that uses artificial intelligence to give autonomous ships a voice. The system should enable the unmanned vehicles to independently participate in maritime radio and communicate their intentions in critical situations such as imminent collisions.
Operators of ship drones are to be relieved
People are currently responsible for radio communication for autonomous ships. These operators either work on land in remote operation centres or are on board the ships. A single operator is often responsible for several ship drones at the same time, which can lead to overload in critical situations.
Experts see this as a significant safety risk, as communication between ships is particularly crucial in dangerous situations such as imminent collisions. Changes in course and speed must then be precisely coordinated. Delayed or faulty communication due to overloaded operators could have fatal consequences.
Norwegian researchers develop AI-based solution
But that is about to change: Scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) are working on a system that is set to revolutionise communication between autonomous and manned ships. Their goal is a solution that makes interaction easier, faster and more reliable. In the Ocean Engineering magazine the researchers published their results.
The system is designed to give other ships and coastal stations the opportunity to ask about and discuss the status, decisions and future intentions of the autonomous ship in natural language. This should significantly reduce the workload of operators during VHF radio calls.
Combination of several AI models
The researchers used several AI models for the prototype. By combining them, the system can understand requests and give appropriate, coherent responses that correspond to the intentions and status of the autonomous ship. The responses are generated as spoken language. The system was first tested in a ship simulator and then compared with the performance of a human ship's officer in the same scenario.
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Little trust in autonomous radio
The tests revealed a fundamental problem: the autonomous radio system is much less trusted than a human ship's officer. This was revealed by surveys conducted with test subjects during the investigation. The lack of trust represents a significant hurdle for the practical implementation of the technology, as radio communication is particularly important in situations where two ships are on a collision course. At such moments, course and speed changes must be precisely coordinated.
Nevertheless, the researchers are confident that the existing obstacles can be overcome with a further developed version of the prototype. However, they also emphasise that the system will only be suitable for large-scale use when it is just as safe as conventionally manned ships.
