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The Seabots are Coming Here: Should they be Treated as ‘Vessels’?

  • Craig H. Allen (a1)
Abstract

Unmanned Marine Vehicles (UMVs), like their aerial cousins Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are not easily classified under existing legal regimes. Even though unmanned, should these seagoing drones be treated as ‘vessels’ under the Law of the Sea Convention articles on navigation rights and duties? Are they ‘vessels’ under the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs, 1972)? If so, should they be accorded a manoeuvring priority vis-à-vis other vessels? Are the differences between autonomous UMVs and the increasingly automated manned vessels all that great, such that classification should turn on whether the vessel is manned rather than on how navigation and collision avoidance decisions are made and executed?

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Copyright
Corresponding author
(Email: challen@uw.edu)
References
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COLREGs (1972). International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972, with amendments adopted from December 2009. IMO Publications, London.
IMO [International Maritime Organization] (2012). E-navigation. (http://www.imo.org/ourwork/safety/navigation/pages/enavigation.aspx).
NAVSAC (2011). NAVSAC Resolution 11-02. US Navigation Safety Advisory Council.
USV (2007). The US Navy Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) Master Plan, 23 July 2007. (http://www.navy.mil/navydata/technology/usvmppr.pdf).
UUV (2004). The US Navy Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) Master Plan, 9 November 2004. (http://www.navy.mil/navydata/technology/uuvmp.pdf).
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The Journal of Navigation
  • ISSN: 0373-4633
  • EISSN: 1469-7785
  • URL: /core/journals/journal-of-navigation
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