Codifying Good Seamanship into Machine Executable Rules

Enabling unmanned surface vessels to comply with the collisions regulations is one of the most interesting challenges facing the shipping industry. The “Machine Executable Collision Regulations for Marine Autonomous Systems” (MAXCMAS project aims to develop a comprehensive capability and demonstrate satisfactory execution of marine ‘rules of the road’ by autonomous vessels. This is an Industry-academia Research and Technology (R&T) collaboration with Innovate UK part-funding including a contribution from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The project partners include Rolls-Royce, ATLAS ELEKTRONIC UK Ltd, Lloyd’s Register EMEA, Queen’s University of Belfast and Warsash Maritime Academy. This paper discusses how the regulations that have been written by humans for human consumption were portrayed to the researchers by the Master Mariner to enable the generation of intelligent MAXCMAS algorithms.