Human Factors Challenges in Future Remote Operations for Electrified Short-Sea Ro-Ro Ferries

Abstract

Maritime operations are undergoing significant transformation driven by increasing levels of autonomy, electrification, digitalization, and artificial intelligence. These trends, combined with crew shortages are accelerating interest in Remote Operation Centers (ROCs) for shore-based fleet supervision. This is particularly relevant for short-sea Ro-Ro ferry operations, where repetitive, constrained, and time-critical electrified routes make ROC operations a promising approach for improving safety, performance, and energy efficiency. However, ROC implementation is not merely a technical change — performance, safety, and scalability will depend heavily on how human factors challenges are understood and addressed. Existing research has identified key issues such as insufficient situational awareness, vigilance decline, workload dynamics, trust, and communication challenges. Yet prior work has largely focused on navigation-oriented supervision, with limited attention to engineering tasks, and much of the literature remains conceptual or simulation-based. Current research therefore provides only a partial view of human factors challenges within the broader sociotechnical reconfiguration of roles and human-technology interaction across ship and shore. This paper addresses this gap through an exploratory qualitative study combining field visits, observations, and interviews across onboard and real-world ROC environments for Nordic short-sea ferry operations. Data from more than 40 participants including master mariners, ship engineers, and maritime experts were analyzed using thematic analysis supported by MAXQDA and affinity diagramming. The findings reveal interconnected human factors challenges spanning cognitive, organizational, physical, and technical-system domains. Key challenges include loss of embodied navigational and engineering cues, high switching demands in multi-vessel supervision, cognitive fatigue from multi-screen monitoring, role ambiguity, and intensive cross-organizational communication. These are compounded by fragmented interfaces, alarm floods, and unreliable connectivity, increasing operator burden in time-critical operations. The findings extend prior research by providing an empirically grounded view across both navigational and engineering domains, with implications for system design, operator competencies, organizational arrangements, and human-centered ROC development.

Keywords: Remote Operation, Human Factors, Short-Sea Shipping, Electrified Ferries, Situation Awareness, Cognition, Sociotechnical Systems, Interaction Design

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1008121