自主船舶的定义及其自主水平的界定

梳理了自主船舶的发展历程, 明确了自主船舶的定义, 规范了自主船舶的中英文表述, 基于船舶自主化演变路径, 分析了船舶自动化、智能化和自主化的关系; 总结了当前国际上6家权威机构提出的自主水平分级标准, 分析了其分级依据的实质与局限性; 以具体的任务情景为对象, 参考《STCW公约》有关海员适任标准中规定的7项职能, 提出了一种基于航海实践的自主水平分级方法, 依据不同的水域条件、操作复杂程度、独立于人的干预程度等因素确定任务情景等级, 并通过标定方程的计算结果确定船舶整体自主水平; 以2艘搭载自主航行技术的测试船舶为例, 对比了不同机构的自主水平分级结果。研究结果表明: 自主水平分级依据的关键在于能否独立于人的干预完成相应的任务或实现相应的功能, 而不是取决于船舶自动化水平或决策地点; 基于航海实践的自主水平分级方法能够更为客观地反映船舶的自主水平, 有效避免了由于单一功能的自主实现导致船舶整体自主水平认定不准确的弊端, 该方法科学、合理。 

Definition of autonomous ship and its autonomy level

The development history of autonomous ship was sorted out, its definition was clarified, and its Chinese and English expressions were normalized. The relationship among the ship's automation, intelligence and autonomy was discussed based on the evolution path of autonomy. The taxonomies of autonomy level of 6 authoritative institutions in the world were summarized, the essence and limitation of taxonomy basis were deeply analyzed. Taking the task scenarios as objects and referring to 7 functions of seafarers' standards of competency in the STCW Convention, a taxonomy method of autonomy levels based on navigation practice was proposed. The method identified the levels of task scenarios according to water condition, complexity of operation, and independence from human intervention, and the overall autonomy levels of the ship were determined by the calculation result of the calibration equation. Two test ships carrying autonomous navigation technology were taking as examples, the classification results of autonomy levels of different institutions were compared. Analysis result shows that the key to the taxonomy basis of autonomy level is whether the autonomous ship can independently complete the corresponding task or achieve the corresponding function from the human intervention, rather than depending on the ship automation level or decision-making location. The taxonomy method of autonomy levels based on the navigation practice can reflect the autonomy level of the ship more objectively, and effectively avoid the disadvantage of inaccurate identification of overall autonomy level of the ship due to the autonomous implement of a single function. Therefore, the proposed method is scientific and reasonable.