In an interview with the Financial Times, Oskar Levander, Head of Marine Innovation Engineering at Rolls-Royce, stated that "the idea of a remote-controlled ship is not new… [the idea] has been around for decades, but the difference is the technology now exists.”

Rolls-Royce, which has a highly active marine division with a £3.3B orderbook, has the expertise to deliver an unmanned, remotely controlled ship, but Levander considers the main stumbling block to the acceptance of ‘drone’ ships to be the complex international rules governing sea operations, such as the legal requirement to maintain a qualified watchkeeper on the bridge at all times. “Let’s not make it sound too simple. It would require a lot of work, but the fact is we can make it happen faster technologically than we can on the regulatory side,” he said.

He added that although an ocean-going vessel was probably still several decades off, a robo-ship could start operations on local sea routes, such as US coastal waters or within the EU, if regulators were ready to introduce changes earlier.

“I think it will take more than 10 years before you have all the global rules in place, but you may have a local administration that is prepared to run [remote-controlled ships] sooner.”

However, short sea traffic, while labour intensive and therefore ideal for automation, is highly demanding with large numbers of ships sailing in close proximity to each other and the shore.

What might be more acceptable is for long haul deep sea vessels sailing between single hub ports to be remotely operated although it may be necessary to land a skeleton crew onboard just prior to docking. Routine areas such as container or trailer lashing inspection/tightening will need addressing, but several or more ships could be operated remotely by a shore-based team using a ‘3D’ bridge similar to that employed by a training simulator.

Apart from the reduction of crew costs, which can vary from 10% to 30% of operating costs, one attraction of an unmanned container or ro-ro ship would be increased deck areas for container/trailer stowage in place of the conventional bridge and accommodation deckhouse. Additionally, the removal of crew support systems from sewage treatment, accommodation, food storage/preparation to lifeboats, could help offset the additional automation, monitoring and data communication costs.

The EC is currently co-funding the MUNIN programme (Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks), a scheme to develop and verify concept cargo ships that could be remotely navigated by land-based pilots, as well as look at the legal and regulatory issues around them. The study so far has found that 75% of accidents are caused by human error, of which a significant proportion can be attributed to “fatigue and attention deficit."