Our objective is to develop safe and efficient human-machine interfaces and interaction for remote operation centres (ROCs).
MASS will for the foreseeable future be dependent on a land-based remote operation - centre (ROC). The role of the ROC will be to monitor the status of the ship, and to intervene if the automation fails. The location, removed from the context of the vessel, will be a great challenge in order to give adequate situation awareness to the ROC operators. The interaction among MASS-ROC and conventional ships will depend heavily on sensor and AIS information, as well as cooperation with the vessel traffic service (VTS).
The main research tasks are:
Task 3.1, which will research a reliable decision-support system for the ROC based on sensor fusion of available real-time environmental data and simulation models of the ship (“digital twin”)
Task 3.2, which will research a usable Human-centre designed based HMI for the ROC. With situation awareness and workload in mind, develop the interface humans and automation onboard and in the ROC, and means of communicate intentions to conventional ships.
Task 3.3, which will focus on research, procedures, manning and competence needs for ROC Research the needed competence for the new “mariners” in the ROC and also work procedures and division of labour between operators and automation.
Task 3.4, which will focus on iteratively, to verify usability and validate performance in the ROC in simulators and at sea. The prototypes developed will be tested with end users at the NTNU simulator centre in Ålesund and on the research vessel Gunnerus.
AI decision transparency in autonomous maritime operations, Andreas Madsen (completed)
Explainable AI for Autonomous Ships, Eirik Fagerhaug
Decision Support Systems for Autonomous Vessels, Luka Grgicevic (completed)
Postdoc research
Remote control for crane, Taufik Akbar Sitompul (completed)
Recent publications
Recent publications
Journal articles:
Eirik S. Fagerhaug, Lars Ivar Hatledal, Robin T. Bye, Ottar L. Osen (2025). "Oceanscape: A graph-based framework for autonomous coastal navigation", Ocean Engineering.
Luka Grgičević, Erlend M. Coates, Thor I. Fossen, Robin T. Bye, Ottar L. Osen (2025). "Centralised Decision Support in Maritime Vessel Traffic Services: A Polymatrix Game Solution", IEEE Access.
Andreas N. Madsen, Andreas Brandsæter, Koen van de Merwe, Jooyoung Park (2025). "Improving decision transparency in autonomous maritime collision avoidance", Journal of Marine Science and Technology.
Felix-Marcel Petermann, Ole Andreas Alsos, Eleftherios Papachristos, Clas Olaf S. Andersen, Andreas N. Madsen (2025). "Maritime Head-up Display (mHUD): a safety-enhancing navigational tool for ship bridges and remote operation centres", Journal of Navigation.
Erik Aleksander Veitch, Taufik A. Sitompul, Ole Andreas Alsos (2025). "Dataset on passenger experience after riding an autonomous ferry", Data in Brief.
Conference papers/ seminars:
Ole Andreas Alsos, Felix-Marcel Petermann (2025). "Human in the maritime operations of the future", IMO MASS Symposium.
Ole Andreas Alsos, Mina Saghafian, Erik A. Veitch, Taufik A. Sitompul, Felix-Marcel Petermann, Eleftherios Papachristou (2025). "Mind the Kayak! Informing UX Design of Autonomous Vehicles through Edge Case Testing in the Field", Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Luka Grgičević (2025). "Algorithms in Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) for Centralised Traffic Management", SFI AutoShip Days 2025.
Felix-Marcel Petermann (2025). "Humans and autonomous ships: Their information demand and how we can solve it with design-driven research", SFI AutoShip Days 2025.
Felix-Marcel Petermann (2025). "The unseen helm: Potential humanfactors issues in monitoring and operating MASS", Autonomous Sea Navigation, Batumi State Maritime Academy & Universita Degli Studi Del Sannio.
Felix-Marcel Petermann (2025). "A Field Study: Evaluating the Maritime Head-Up Display (mHUD)", Interact Workshops 2025.
Felix-Marcel Petermann (2025). "From Helm to Screen: Navigator and Gamer Insights for Designing MultiVessel Control Interfaces", Interact Workshops 2025.
Felix-Marcel Petermann, Ole Andreas Alsos (2025). "Guided by the Light: The Design of a Navigation Support Tool for Ships", Human-Computer Interaction--INTERACT 2025: Proceedings, Part I.
Taufik Akbar Sitompul (2025). "Designing user interfaces for remote cranes by reusing OpenCraneDesign System: Insights from software developers and crane operators", SFI AutoShip webinar.
Taufik Akbar Sitompul (2025). "Shore Control Lab: A research infrastructure for investigating future challenges in monitoring and operating MASS", NATO Advanced Training Course on Autonomous Sea Navigation.
