Challenges of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Software in Autonomous Vessels

The maritime industry is naturally more concerned with the mechanicaland marine engineering aspects of vessels, but the role of software is becomingmore and more prominent. Currently many software engineering challenges in themaritime domain are underestimated or remain unaddressed. This is also the casewhen considering safety of vessels, which is a prime concern for vessel trafficservices. In addition, with the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) andmachine learning (ML) techniques for implementing autonomous behaviours in vessels,it is important to consider various challenges and safety hazards associatedwith the use of these technologies in the maritime industry. In this work, we highlightsome new safety hazards for using AI and ML for maritime operations and discusssome open challenges in designing, developing, testing, certifying, anddeploying AI and ML components for autonomous vessels.