Legal and Operational Considerations for Autonomous Maritime Systems

Unmanned Surface Vessels Transit Pacific Ocean in Route to RIMPAC 2022 , Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Fraser/U.S. Department of Defense

The Unmanned Surface Vessel Sea Hunter transits the Pacific Ocean en route to RIMPAC 2022

Photo by Tyler Fraser/U.S. Navy

Event Details

Date: September 16-18, 2024

Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Location: Troia, Portugal

About the Workshop

Maritime autonomous systems have been operationalized in various applications such as the Persian Gulf, the Black Sea, and in-situ open ocean hurricane measurements by NOAA, as well as in inland waterways. Most of these systems are commercial and off-the shelf (COTS) and widely available. Yet their use, jurisdiction, and legality have no agreed upon framework under any national or international laws, especially in the context of civil or criminal cases. For instance, were the U.S. Coast Guard to use autonomous vehicles to surveil and/or interdict drug traffickers or smugglers, what kinds of data (and therefore what sensor packages) would be appropriate for prosecution in a court of law? Equally nebulous, and in uncharted territory, is the applicability of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on tracking/surveilling in international waters for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, oil spills, or piracy. To date these issues have been resolved in an ad-hoc manner primarily by the United States and European allies, driven by security concerns and [TK] by their respective navies. As maritime autonomous systems proliferate, we need a framework and agreed upon maritime laws both from a legal as well as operational perspective for navies and coast guards.

To advance our understanding and examine the challenges associated with the operations and use of such systems, the Portuguese Navy and RAND will hold a workshop on ‘Legal & Operational Considerations for Autonomous Maritime Systems' coincident with the yearly REP(MUS) exercise. The objective of the workshop is to bring together a number of thought leaders in allied nations to examine these challenging issues that pertain to making autonomous marine systems more useable in national and homeland security, as well as in commercial scenarios which touch on national security.

The workshop will be presented in five modules:

Maritime law and regulation of autonomous vessels/systems
Unmanned cargo vessels and implications for national security
Recent developments in commercial/military use of autonomous systems
How autonomous systems might shape the future of naval operations

This event is by invitation only.

Contact

Contact autonomous-maritime-systems-workshop@rand.org with questions about the event.

Organizers

Karlyn D. Stanley
Senior Policy Researcher; Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Karlyn Stanley is a senior policy researcher at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School. Stanley is a lawyer whose career has focused on technology, including building and leading technology-focused legal practices for two international companies and a national law firm, handling high-profile regulatory litigation as a senior lawyer at AT&T, and prosecuting white-collar crime as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kanna Rajan
Senior Information Scientist, RAND; Visiting Professor, University of Porto, Portugal
Kanna is a pioneer in the design, build, test and operation of autonomous systems in deep space and the deep ocean. He was a principal of NASA’s Remote Agent Experiment, the first autonomous system in space and PI of the command/control of the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers. Since 2005 he has worked extensively in the maritime domain in California, Norway and Portugal where he has a faculty position at the University of Porto. His current focus at RAND is on understanding implications to military planning, training and use of autonomous systems in support of the warfighter.

Karlyn D. Stanley
Senior Policy Researcher; Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Karlyn Stanley is a senior policy researcher at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School. Stanley is a lawyer whose career has focused on technology, including building and leading technology-focused legal practices for two international companies and a national law firm, handling high-profile regulatory litigation as a senior lawyer at AT&T, and prosecuting white-collar crime as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Full Profile »
Kanna Rajan
Senior Information Scientist, RAND; Visiting Professor, University of Porto, Portugal
Kanna is a pioneer in the design, build, test and operation of autonomous systems in deep space and the deep ocean. He was a principal of NASA’s Remote Agent Experiment, the first autonomous system in space and PI of the command/control of the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers. Since 2005 he has worked extensively in the maritime domain in California, Norway and Portugal where he has a faculty position at the University of Porto. His current focus at RAND is on understanding implications to military planning, training and use of autonomous systems in support of the warfighter.

Full Profile »

Panelists

Panelist
Geert De Cubber
Robotics & Autonomous Systems unit team leader, Department of Mechanics of the Belgian Royal Military Academy
Geert De Cubber is the team leader of the Robotics & Autonomous Systems unit of the department of Mechanics of the Belgian Royal Military Academy. He is also a senior researcher at this institute with a research focus on developing robotic solutions for solving security challenges like crisis management, the fight against crime and terrorism and border security. He received his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering in 2001 from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and his Doctoral Degree in Engineering in 2010 from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Belgian Royal Military Academy (RMA). His research interests include methodologies for perceiving and control of multi-agent robotic systems, across the air, land and maritime domain. Prominent application examples are crisis management robots, humanitarian demining robots, robots for surveillance applications, and generically robotics for tough environments.
Panelist
Tom Eystø
CEO, Massterly
Tom Eystø is the CEO of Massterly, an autonomous shipping company. He has over 25 years of experience from Kongsberg Maritime. Before joining Massterly, he held the position of Vice president of bridge systems in Kongsberg Maritime, including Head of Autonomy Program. Tom also worked 3 years outside Norway, in Singapore as a Regional Support Manager for Kongsberg Maritime. His background includes 5 years in the Royal Norwegian Navy, and a bachelor's degree in mechatronics.
Panelist
Sebastian Feuerstack
Safe Automation of Maritime Systems Department Head, Institute of Systems Engineering for Future Mobility, German Aerospace Center
Sebastian Feuerstack is the head of the Safe Automation of Maritime Systems department of the Institute of Systems Engineering for Future Mobility of the German Aerospace Center where the focus is on technology transfer and application and evaluation of safety methods to ensure trustworthiness of highly automated and autonomous vessels on sea, waterways, and ports. The department operates the eMIR testbed that spans along the German Bight and includes several ports of Lower Saxony to test and evaluate highly automated maritime systems.
Panelist
Martin Hagström
Deputy Research Director, Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI); program manager of the Unmanned vehicles and Autonomous systems area
Martin Hagström is a Deputy Research Director at the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI) and the program manager of the Unmanned vehicles and Autonomous systems area, responsible for the support and direction to the Swedish Armed Forces’ research planning. Martin has a background in autonomous systems, navigation and control and his research also includes work regulation and legal aspects of unmanned vehicles and autonomous weapon systems.
Panelist
Sam Hodder
Ship Standards Policy Lead - Autonomy, UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency
Sam Hoder is Ship Standards Policy Lead - Autonomy at the United Kingdom's Maritime and Coastguard Agency. An experienced policy advisor, Sam has worked at the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency since 2018 with a majority of his time involved in policy and legislative development, including the drafting and laying of the Seafarer Training, Certification & Watchkeeping amendments into UK legislation. With a focus on facilitating the MCA’s regulatory response to autonomous shipping, Sam supports the UK's Maritime Autonomy lead at the IMO’s Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship’s working group, and is working closely with industry as part of the development of international and national regulation. He started working in Maritime Autonomy in 2022.
Panelist
Margaret Materna
Deputy Director, Office of the Judge Advocate General National Security Law Division (Code 10), U.S. Navy
Margaret Materna is currently the Deputy Director of the National Security Law Division for the Office of the JAG (Code 10), U.S. Navy. In this capacity, she oversees the Division's efforts to support the Fleets and advise the Judge Advocate General and senior Navy leadership on International Law, including the Law of Armed Conflict, Law of the Sea, and International Agreements. Prior to her work in the Navy, Margaret served as Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy & Environment from 2015 to 2017, where she provided substantive and strategic guidance to the Army secretariat to help accomplish its policy objectives. During her tenure, she was selected for and participated in the White House National Security Leaders Program.
Panelist
João Sousa
ECE Department Professor, Porto University; Head of the Underwater Systems and Technologies Laboratory, LSTS
João Sousa is a Professor at the ECE Department, Porto University and the the head of the Underwater Systems and Technologies Laboratory - LSTS (https://www.lsts.pt/). He is the chair of the Swedish Marine Robotics Center Advisory Board, a member of the NATO MUS Innovation Advisory Board and a member of SFI-Ocean Advisory Board. He has been co-organizing, since 2010, the REP(MUS) large-scale exercise in cooperation with the Portuguese Navy, CMRE, and MUS-NATO. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering and has authored over 400 publications, including 50 journal papers.
Panelist
Zhen Sun
Associate Professor of Research/Ocean Sustainability, Governance & Management, WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University
Zhen Sun is an Associate Professor (Research/Ocean Sustainability, Governance & Management) at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden. Her main research interests include law of the sea, international regulation of shipping, gender equality in ocean governance, climate actions and the protection of the marine environment. At WMU, Zhen plays an active role in the application and execution of a number of multidiscipline research programmes and contributes to the delivery of the MSc and the PhD Programmes through substantial teaching and supervision commitments. Prior to joining WMU, Zhen was a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore.
Panelist
Robert Veal
Associate, Winter & Co Solicitors LLP
Robert Veal is an associate at Winter & Co Solicitors LLP. Robert has developed a portfolio of consultancy work in the field of remotely controlled and autonomous ships, for a range of maritime authorities and private clients; principally offering expertise on matters of law reform, regulatory compliance, and liability. He is a member of the Comité Maritime International Working Group on Unmanned Ships, and has represented the NGO at both the Legal Committee and Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) (MASS Working Group). Robert is a contributing author to “Autonomous Ships and the Law”, Informa, 2020.
Panelist
Walter Verstrepen
Senior Legal Advisor of the Navy Policy Staff, Policy Support, Belgian Navy
Walter Verstrepen is a senior legal advisor of the Navy Policy Staff, Policy Support, Belgian Navy. He holds the rank of Commander senior grade (Capitaine de frégate). His speciality is maritime, aviation and international law of the sea. He is a member of the Brussels Bar and a practicing solicitor in England and Wales. He joined the Belgian Navy in 1990 and he is a deck officer. He had various assignments onboard as watchkeeping officer, assistance operations officer in MCM Warfare and legal advisor to the Staff of the Belgian Navy (1991-2019). In October 2014, he joined the Working Group Safety and Regulations for Unmanned Maritime Systems (SARUMS) of European Defence Agency (EDA).