Autonomous Navigation Decision-Making and the Evolving Role of the Officer of the Watch: Implications for MASS Integration in Indonesian Shipping Corridors
Keywords:
MASS; autonomous navigation; Officer of the Watch; COLREGs; Indonesian shipping corridorsAbstract
The adoption of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) under the IMO MASS Code represents the most consequential redefinition of the Officer of the Watch (OOW) role in the history of modern seafaring. While autonomous navigation technologies progressively assume operational functions traditionally performed by human officers, the decision-making competencies, supervisory responsibilities, and COLREGs compliance challenges that arise at the human-autonomy interface remain empirically undercharacterized — particularly in the complex, high-traffic, and archipelagic shipping environments of Southeast Asia. This study investigates autonomous navigation decision-making and the evolving OOW role in the context of MASS integration within Indonesian shipping corridors. Employing a qualitative research design, data were generated through semi-structured interviews with senior deck officers, maritime education experts, and maritime regulatory practitioners, supplemented by systematic document analysis of IMO MASS Code provisions and Indonesian domestic shipping regulatory frameworks. Analysis proceeded through thematic analysis, cross-group comparison, and narrative synthesis. Findings reveal that OOW competency frameworks face four structurally unresolved challenges under MASS integration: situational awareness degradation in remote supervisory roles, COLREGs interpretive ambiguity in human-autonomy encounter scenarios, institutional unpreparedness in maritime education curricula, and regulatory gaps in Indonesian domestic MASS governance. The study argues for the urgent development of a MASS-competent OOW framework that integrates autonomous systems literacy, adaptive decision-making training, and regulatory alignment within Indonesian maritime education and policy.
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