The 21st century has been marked by the advent of autonomous vehicles. In recent years, the IMO MASS scoping activity is identifying needed changes to existing regulation while IALA has been developing a set of technical products and specifications that can contribute to the safe introduction of MASS operations for the maritime transport industries. E-Navigation is defined as the harmonized collection, integration, exchange, presentation and analysis of marine information on board and ashore by electronic means to enhance berth-to-berth navigation and related services for safety and security at sea and protection of the marine environment. E-Navigation specifies the need for presentation and analysis of information and calls for employing human-centered design approaches to ensure high usability with the goal of achieving and maintaining shared situational awareness to inform critical decision-making for both conventional ships and MASS operations. MASS operations will require shore control centres (SCC) where crew will remotely monitor and operate vessels. One challenge faced by SCC designers is that of providing shared situational awareness to the remote vessel crew while avoiding information overload. The advent of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality technologies has created new opportunities for interactive, immersion that is required for performing critical tasks.
This presentation considers the human as the decision-maker during MASS operations but allows for varying levels of human supervisory control, made possible using automation and considers the use of digital twins and 3D interactive, immersive virtual environments as a key technology for creating reconfigurable SCC is presented.