Autonomous ships: a review, innovative applications and future maritime business models

Abstract

Over the last decade, a few autonomous ship prototypes have been developed. While Norway is pioneering the technological development of autonomous ships (AS), other countries such as China, Finland and USA have also made significant progress. However, future applications of AS and potential business models are not yet well explored. In the near future, AS are expected to be launched commercially, adding a new dimension in the merchant shipping industry. Thus, this study contributes to the maritime literature by (1) providing a review of the AS development projects and the benefits of AS from an economic, environmental and social perspective, (2) suggesting innovative uses of AS in short-sea-shipping (SSS), arctic shipping, and conventional shipping, and finally (3) discussing potential business models from the perspective of AS manufacturers.

Big data and artificial intelligence in the maritime industry: a bibliometric review and future research directions

“…Consequently, the amount of research on the application of big data and AI has increased significantly since 2012 (Liang and Liu 2018). Following this trend, data-centric innovative technologies and new business models are being developed (Munim 2019). This transformation is reshaping the maritime industry, providing new opportunities to improve productivity, efficiency and sustainability (Heilig, Lalla-Ruiz, and Voß 2017).…”

Inherent paradoxes in the shift to autonomous solutions provision: a multilevel investigation of the shipping industry

“…Arguably, the most disruptive of these shifts is the transition to autonomous solutions (Porter and Heppelmann 2014 ). For example, technology providers in traditional industries such as the shipping industry work to transform their industry toward adoption of autonomous solutions—a shift that will profoundly change the industry’s traditional business models, as autonomous vessels enable new services like remote operations which open the door for changed ownership structures and selling technological solutions through outcome-based contracts (Munim 2019 ). However, despite various promising initiatives, the shift to large-scale autonomous solutions has been impeded in many industrial domains.…”

“…From a theoretical standpoint, this study seeks to bring nuance to dichotomous studies that have highlighted either the benefits or the barriers of autonomous solutions by bringing the two together through the paradox lens (Munim 2019 ; Ghaderi 2019 ; Rødseth 2017 ; Ringbom 2019 ). Often in organizational life, leaders face difficulties in simply choosing between alternatives.…”

Costs and Benefits of Autonomous Shipping—A Literature Review

“…Similarly to LSND, the concept of the vessel train denotes a manned master-ship and automatically controlled the following vessels [56,57]. In a semi-autonomous vessel platooning concept, the main cost saving is reduction in crew cost.…”