MASS AND THE HUMAN ELEMEMT

One look at the different modes of transportation and one would feel water mode of transportation is catching up with other modes when it comes to technology specially being Autonomous. But there is no doubt in anyones mind that Autonomous ships are a reality in the coming future. There are rockets shooting up the sky, Trains running on tracks, taxis on the road, cranes lifting up goods etc which are all operated not from the vehicle but else where. Shipping isnt complety new to this and elsewhere concept" atleast in terms of automation as many equipments on the Navigation bridge and many machineries including the main engine of the ships are being operated automatically and remotely but yes when it comes to remotely operating ships without humans and from shore based stations, it certainly is new to shipping and catching up So are going to be ships controlled from elsewhere in Future.Yes Ships sailing at at sea operated fron land, sounds weired but interesting and the future. So who are going to operate those ships, are they going to be humans on the ship as are questions that needs to be looked into in detail and the manpower industry needs to gear up itself for the paradigm shift. People with different set of skills are required to operate these ground stations with different functions.MASS , MUNIN. AI etc are words that are emerging in todays maritime vocabulary The aim of autonoums ships is to make shipping efficient and safer with less human errors and less human needs to acquired.

Machine interafce by automating most of the functions. So at the core of an autonomous ship with be automation and artifical intellegience with major controls from shore based ground stations and little/ no human based contriol onboard ships. Humans may find No space onboard ships but Humans will be required for various land based operations but with a different skill set Lets take a look at what kind of skills and training the maritime industry needs to prepare itself to meet the paradigm shift in making ships humanless and more automatic Considering the control from shore to ship and vice versa , softwares need to be devloped, so software development to meet the new needs are going to be the foremost skills that with Increased dependency on soiftware, trouble shooting the software if/when there are breakdowns are going to be another skill set required upfront Updation on changing software will demand continuous updation training to keep pace with changing softwares Manufacturing the new set of hardware will require humans be trained on the developing technologises and electronics Knowledge on Artifical intelleigence will be required for the hardware developers robotics will play a role in shipping, if not now but in future and knowledge on robotics will be required if that be the case Block chain technology will certainly be used considering the different stations(nodes) and the integrity of data that needs to be exchanged between stations Ground stations are going to be manned by Humans though less in number.