Study calls for remote pilotage answers

IMPA, which is working with the Canadian National Centre of Expertise on Maritime Pilotage (NCEMP) and the Canadian Coast Guard, is ’rigorously exploring remote pilotage to ground-truth its feasibility, readiness and impacts on safe navigation practices and systems’, it says.

It says the study has been launched to gather unbiased, science-based and authoritative insights into pilotage as a ‘socio-technical’ system, analysing the readiness, risks, impacts, benefits, opportunities and prerequisites of remote pilotage.

Trials, it says, will take place over the next two years in three different ways: the first in a simulated environment where solutions are trialled onshore; the second on board a Canadian Coast Guard vessel; and the third in a near real-life environment on board commercial ships in mandatory pilotage waters.

The International Maritime Pilots’ Association (IMPA), established in 1970, represents pilots’ organisations in over 50 countries and a professional community of over 8,000 maritime pilots. 

“Manufacturers and system integrators are invited to demonstrate how their solutions to remote piloting meet the needs of the end-users – the maritime pilots,” said Captain Alain Arseneault, executive director of the National Center of Expertise on Maritime Pilotage. “We are committed to ensure every proposal will receive a complete, fair, and transparent assessment. We want to see solutions that can help us safely find the limits of what might be possible.’’

The deadline to participate in the study is 31 December 2024, and details can be found here.