The paper focuses on studying the industrial practice cases of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) both domestically and internationally, compares the progress of regulations on MASS from various classification societies, and analyzes the current situation and existing problems of MASS technology development at this stage. At the same time, the paper combs the progress of MASS issues since the MSC 98, and studies the route of goal-based MASS instrument formulation issued by the MSC 105 and the goal-based MASS framework and instrument issued by the MSC 107, and delves into an analysis of the difficulties in the current MASS CODE formulation. Finally, based on MASS industrial practice cases and MASS code-making progress, the paper proposes the future development direction of MASS from the perspectives including MASS classification, research and development of next generation ship, system decoupling and reconstruction, development of MASS system, and MASS testing.
In recent years, major shipbuilding countries worldwide have been accelerating the process of ship intelligence, competing to develop various types of smart ships and related equipment and systems. Ship regulatory authorities and smart ship classification societies have also been actively conducting research on laws, regulations, norms, standards, and guidelines. The development of smart ship has become a hot topic in the international maritime field. International organizations such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have included the research of regulations and standards for smart ships as important topics.
Although the development of smart ships both domestically and internationally is in a good state, there is still no unified definition and classification of smart ships on global scale. The development of international maritime conventions is still in its early stage, and the application of intelligent system is still limited. The overall development of smart ships worldwide is still in the stage of exploration and initial development. The understanding of the operational risks of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) is still insufficient, and research on the applicability of relevant regulations and standards for the commercial operation of autonomous ships at sea has not yet commenced. If these issues are not studied as soon as possible, they will severely impede the development of smart ships.
