The effect of autonomous systems on the crew size of ships–a case study

Recently, autonomous ships have gotten a lot more attention both in the media and in research. However, very little research has focussed on the effects of automation on the size of the crew. This paper analyses the effects of added automation on the required size and composition of the crew on a 750 TEU short sea container vessel. A Crew Analysis Algorithm is used to determine the cheapest crew composition to perform the tasks required to operate a ship. Using this algorithm, two potential automation options are investigated: automating the navigation tasks and automating the mooring tasks. Automating the navigation tasks decreases the required crew size in the normal sailing and arrival & departure phases by 3 and 1 crew members, respectively. The loading & unloading phase is unaffected. Automating the mooring tasks reduces the required crew in the arrival & departure phase to 2. It is concluded that since individual automation options do not affect the crew requirements for all travel phases, their effect on crew reduction is limited unless several options are combined. However, with a change in task assignment and different training of crew members, a reduction of the required number of crew members is possible.