Shipping 4.0 and Training Seafarers for the Future Autonomous and Unmanned Ships

Autonomous and unmanned ships are becoming a reality. The advancement of technology in the fields of AI, IoT, system control, and automation is allowing the ships to be controlled from a Ship Control Centre (SCC) miles away or even navigate itself autonomously. Several projects of unmanned and remotely controlled ships are underway in different part of the world. As a matter of fact, some are in operation since 2018. So far, the main focus of the industry and academia was the development of technology and integration into ship design. However, there are limited discussion about the skills which needed to operate these ships and how to train seafarers to operate them in the future. Although, they are called autonomous or unmanned there are always human involve
in their operation. This article, based on a comprehensive study of the available literature on the industry 4.0 and shipping 4.0 will describe what would the future of shipping look like and what would be the possible skills and competencies of the operators of the unmanned and autonomous ships. Based on that we propose what would be
the best possible course of actions for the maritime training institutions to be prepared for development of competencies that seafarers may need to man the future maritime industry.