It’s time to consider the role of “digital watchkeepers” as the become an increasingly complex tool for bridge teams.Releasing its annual report in July 2025, the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch said
It’s time to consider the role of “digital watchkeepers” as the become an increasingly complex tool for bridge teams.
Releasing its annual report in July 2025, the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch said that significant collisions between merchant vessels show no sign of reducing. The collision between Scot Explorer and Happy Falcon, the fatal collision between Verity and Polesie and the dramatic and tragic collision of the Solong into the anchored Stena Immaculate indicate a need to radically rethink the role of human watchkeepers in the digital age.
Humans do not make good monitors and if under-stimulated they will find other things to occupy themselves, states the report, and humans can also be reluctant to utilize system functions that will alert them to impending problems.
The impact of human-technology interactions on the bridge has been a topic of research at ABB. Working at ABB’s Intelligent Shipping Program, Kalevi Tervo, Corporate Executive Engineer and Global Program Manager at ABB Marine & Ports, has worked extensively on developing autonomous ship control technology, including electronic lookout and autonomous collision avoidance.
“The more we work with the topic, the clearer it becomes that humans and automation are fundamentally different. So different that the
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