Ships of the future. Autonomous and intelligent.

Abstract

In this article we want to give an insight into what is going to be the future of maritime
navigation. We will start the article by describing the concepts we are going to work with, i.e.
what is an autonomous vessel and what is an intelligent vessel. We will discuss their main
differences, advantages and disadvantages. Subsequently, we will talk about the regulations
surrounding these vessels, both national and international, and how they have been evolving
according to what has been developed around these new types of vessels. We will see the
classification given to these vessels according to the number of crew and how autonomous the
vessel is. In addition, we will also mention how classification societies classify these types of
ships and we will make a small comparison with what each of these societies establish. Finally,
we will present some examples of autonomous and intelligent ships that have set sail and what
experience we can draw from these first autonomous and intelligent ships.