Impact and analysis of autonomous ships to the maritime field
Vulas, Tarkan (2026)
2026
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202601121200
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202601121200
Tiivistelmä
The maritime industry facing a new era of the shipping, it is the development of the Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships also known as MASS. It has potential to be the potential solution to transform the industry into making more greener, efficient. The primary focus of this thesis was to analyse the impact of the autonomous vessels on the maritime environment by comparing them with the traditional manned ships in terms of economic efficiency, safety and reliability and with the research about the environmental impact.
The research was conducted using qualitative methods and in combination with literature review. The study analysed data from the classification societies such as DNV and regulations directly from the International Maritime Organization. Also, the research includes the studies of the autonomous vessels around the Europe region and their data for comparison.
The results of the analysis underlines that the unmanned ships are requiring higher investments due to their technological needs since the entire architecture is about full autonomy. On the other hand, they offer significant long-term saving solutions, and this is because of the presence of the crew is not onboard but rather than on a control centre at the shore. This also eliminates the human errors that can happen onboard. The study also found that reliability can be achieved on an autonomous ship through engineering redundancy and predictive maintenance (PdM) systems with the help of the classification societies. As for the environmental aspects, these new systems are offering a new approach without any crew onboard and this means that there won't be any waste generation by the ship itself. By reducing the waste generation, the analysis also observed that the design of the ship changes due to not needing accommodation and the systems within the superstructure of the ship. For this reason, the autonomous ships are becoming into lighter, aerodynamic friendly with less water-resistant ships.
The thesis analysis concludes that the autonomous ships are not an upgrade but a new approach to the maritime cluster. These ships are having critical role in the reaching to the zero emissions at the seas especially in European waters.
The research was conducted using qualitative methods and in combination with literature review. The study analysed data from the classification societies such as DNV and regulations directly from the International Maritime Organization. Also, the research includes the studies of the autonomous vessels around the Europe region and their data for comparison.
The results of the analysis underlines that the unmanned ships are requiring higher investments due to their technological needs since the entire architecture is about full autonomy. On the other hand, they offer significant long-term saving solutions, and this is because of the presence of the crew is not onboard but rather than on a control centre at the shore. This also eliminates the human errors that can happen onboard. The study also found that reliability can be achieved on an autonomous ship through engineering redundancy and predictive maintenance (PdM) systems with the help of the classification societies. As for the environmental aspects, these new systems are offering a new approach without any crew onboard and this means that there won't be any waste generation by the ship itself. By reducing the waste generation, the analysis also observed that the design of the ship changes due to not needing accommodation and the systems within the superstructure of the ship. For this reason, the autonomous ships are becoming into lighter, aerodynamic friendly with less water-resistant ships.
The thesis analysis concludes that the autonomous ships are not an upgrade but a new approach to the maritime cluster. These ships are having critical role in the reaching to the zero emissions at the seas especially in European waters.