Project description
Trust for safer autonomous shipping
Crewless cargo ships, designed to function without any or minimal human interaction, are expected to sail their way into the real world. But one challenge is that there is the possibility that a human operator may not be able to intervene and rectify any failure in time. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TRUSTCALMASS project aims to explore how trust in automation develops (as well as how it is mistakenly developed) in the context of dangerous maritime environments. Overall, the project uses a high fidelity bridge simulator to study the differences between manual navigation, erroneous decisions made autonomously and training exercises.
Objective
The safe deployment of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) depends on human operators’ ability to detect and override flawed automation in real time. While trust in automation has been conceptually studied in other domains, empirical evidence in maritime contexts—particularly under high-risk, real-time conditions—remains scarce.
The aim of this project is to explore trust calibration in human–automation interaction during MASS Level 2 operations, with the broader goal of generating insights that can inform training, recruitment, and safety procedures. In pursuit of this aim, the study takes an exploratory approach to examine how human operators detect and respond to faulty automation decisions, and how factors such as manual
A quasi-experimental study in a high-fidelity bridge simulator will adopt a three-phase design:
(1) manual navigation to establish baseline performance,
(2) autonomous transit with a deliberately flawed decision, and
(3) a trust calibration training module delivered to a subset of participants.
By comparing maritime officers and technically trained non-maritime participants, the study will identify role-specific differences in trust calibration and automation bias, generating novel empirical evidence for safety-critical operations.
Expected outcomes include:
(i) role-specific recommendations for recruitment and training of MASS operators,
(ii) a Trust Calibration Operating Procedure (TCOP)—a behavior-based safety protocol inspired by captains’ “night orders”—defining when and how to intervene in flawed automation, and
(iii) empirically derived thresholds for manual override decisions in autonomous navigation.
By addressing critical gaps in empirical evidence on trust, expertise, and intervention behavior, this project will provide exploratory findings that may inform recruitment, training, and safety procedures, thereby supporting the Work Programme’s objectives of advancing safe, human-centred, and sustainable maritime transport.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering mechatronics automation
- social sciences social geography transport
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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02150 Espoo
Finland
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