Towards unmanned cargo ships: A task based design process to identify economically viable low and unmanned ship concepts

Unmanned and low-manned transport has increasingly been studied this past decade. While there have been successful trials for autonomous navigation, unmanned cargo ships are not commercially available yet. First, this dissertation investigates how changes to a ship’s systems and organizational structure can affect the crew’s size and composition. Then, a cost benefit analysis determines the economic viability of these concepts. This research concludes with feasible intermediate steps between a conventional ship and a fully unmanned ship.