As autonomous passenger ferries become a reality, the interaction between humans and these systems must be carefully designed to ensure safety, efficiency, and user trust. This project addresses the challenges posed by removing human crew from ferry operations by developing and evaluating human-centred interaction solutions for both passengers and remote operators/captains. Our research-through-design approach integrates real-world trials, user studies, and multimodal feedback mechanisms to create intuitive and transparent interfaces that bridge the communication gap between autonomous systems and their users.

Passenger-Facing Solutions:

Passengers on autonomous ferries must travel without human crew assistance, making clear and accessible touchpoints essential. To support their experience, we have developed and tested the different solutions, for instance:

• Smart Passenger Access Gate – An automated boarding system to support service understanding and the embarkation process while ensuring security and accessibility.
• Human-Facing Explanatory Interface – A real-time passenger information system that communicates ferry status, route progress, and decision-making logic to increase transparency and trust.
• Adaptive Wayfinding and Signage – Dynamic digital and physical signage systems that adjust to different passenger needs, ensuring intuitive navigation.
• Multimodal Public Information System – A combination of visual, auditory, and haptic feedback to maintain situational awareness and reassure passengers during the journey.

Remote Operators and Captains:

While autonomous ferries navigate without onboard crews, remote operators and captains remain responsible for oversight, intervention, and fleet management. Our research has developed tools to enhance situational awareness, decision-making, and control interfaces for shore-based teams in Remote Operation Centers (ROC), including:

• Multi-Vessel Control Interface – A control system that allows operators to monitor and manage multiple autonomous ferries from an ROC integrating sensor data, live video feeds, and predictive analytics.
• Maritime Head-Up Display (mHUD) – A novel augmented reality tool designed to enhance situational awareness for emote operators and bridge crews on conventional ships, improving navigation and hazard detection.
• Interfaces for remote hazard control – Interface design improving situation awareness and collaborative understanding of hazards (especially fires) on ships and the tools to intervene.
• Design Interfaces for Remote Control Centers – Research-based guidelines for developing effective workspaces, workflows, and communication structures in shore-based control stations.

Research Approach and Impact

This project follows a research-through-design methodology, incorporating mixed-methods evaluations, including field trials, eye-tracking studies, user interviews, and usability testing. By designing and validating these solutions in real-world settings, the research contributes to:

• Improving Passenger Acceptance and Experience – Ensuring that autonomous ferries are accessible, intuitive, and trustworthy.
• Enhancing Remote Operator Effectiveness – Developing tools that support human oversight in remote control centres.
• Advancing Maritime Human-System Interaction – Providing design principles and frameworks that can be applied to future autonomous vessel operations.

• NTNU Shore Control Lab
• SFI Autoship
• LASHFIRE
• MIDAS