Vessel Traffic Management in the Era of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships and Digitalization: Experiences in European Waters

The safety of navigation in approaches to harbours and along coasts has been a concern since the beginning of maritime trade approximately 2000 years ago. The ways and means for facilitating the safety and efficiency of maritime navigation have undergone a remarkable transformation from lighthouses, first established in 300–280 BC in Alexandria, Egypt, combined with the use of flag signals by ships to announce their arrival when approaching a harbour, through the use of radars for electronic monitoring combined with radio communications by ships, to the use of satellite-based automatic identification systems combined with automated digital information exchange between maritime autonomous surface ships and geographically distant shore control centres.