Future developments specific to the sustainability of the global shipping and transportation industries need to be revolutionary; whether pressured by economic survival or a result of a natural evolution driven by socio-technical realities. Mankind has just landed a spacecraft on a comet, so concepts regarding E-navigation and unmanned vessels are only several technological solutions away from operational realities.

Conventional thinking suggests that we augment operator decision making with artificially intelligent support systems.  Whether these technologies keep the operator “in-the-loop” or diminish overall situation awareness remains to be seen and is dependent upon the quality and robustness of Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) to monitor and control the automation systems.

Automation of a control system, notwithstanding best of the developer(s)’ intentions, is not fail-proof. A sudden failure in automation of a highly complex system, whose “artificial intelligence” is not transparent to the operator, may prove beyond the cognitive means of a highly stressed (cognitive overloaded) operator to troubleshoot the situation and recover on time. 

 This paper will discuss three elements:

1. The “ironies of automation” and their implications upon HMI design.
2. Credible scenarios of trans-ocean, unmanned vessel passages as described in the European Union sponsored project “MUNIN” (http://www.unmanned-ship.org/munin). These scenarios include:
   • two collision avoidance scenarios where in one instance a target ship adheres to collision regulations (COLREG) and the ownship (unmanned) is to give-way and a second where the target ship does not act according to COLREG and ownship requires  evasive maneuvers.
   • two engine room scenarios, including  a pump injection failure and a carry water overflow occurrence in the engine.
   • three tactical scenarios including precise maneuvering, heavy weather handling and pilot embarkation.
3. The scenario data will provide insight into how the current HMI keeps the shore-based operator in-the-loop and how the Shore Control Centre maintains an adequate distributed situation awareness.