FAVOR · FAcilitate the development of unmanned Vehicles in the maritime sectOR

The maritime industry plays an important role in global economic development as it deals with around 80% of international trade. However, research indicates that around 80-90% of maritime accidents are caused by direct and indirect human error, raising concerns about safety and reliability of current operations. In response, maritime unmanned vehicles (MUVs) have been attracting increasing attention as a potential solution to reducing human error and enhance operational efficiency in the maritime industry (including shipping and port). However, the development of MUVs is still facing huge challenges from multiple aspects of regulations, risk assessment, education and training, sustainable issues, labour force market, and human factors, etc. Understanding the existing literature primarily addressing such challenges in piecemeal and focusing on finding one solution at one time, the project (FAVOR) aims to for the first time, propose a new holistic solution to facilitating the development of MUVs from the above six aspects. FAVOR involves 9 maritime universities, including Liverpool John Moores University (UK), University College London (UK), University of Lisbon (Portugal), İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi (Turkey), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (Malaysia), Dalian Maritime University (China), National Taiwan Ocean University (Taiwan) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), with experienced researchers and early-stage researchers are engaged. Gender balance, EDI, IPR and ethical standards are all considered. Workshops and conference and journal publications will be delivered to enhance knowledge sharing and to train and support ESRs for their future careers. FAVOR will (1) raise attention to the importance of MUVs, (2) examine and fill the gaps between the industry and academia, and (3) propose strategies for facilitating the development of MUVs in maritime and maritime related institutions. It fits to SDG 4,5,8,9,13,and 14.