ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns a novel, indeed rather revolutionary, conception, commonly called an “unmanned ship”. The control centre by definition is central to unmanned ship operations and needs to be regarded as the “foundation stone” of the whole scheme; so its definition is important. The Control Centres (CC) is likely to be the mainstay or “command post” of unmanned ship operations. The ship herself will be deserted, and fairly helpless if contact with the centre is interrupted or, worse, totally ceases. It follows that unmanned ships will have to be constantly monitored and kept under control and supervision by CCs. Unmanned ships involve high technology, of an extremely complex and complicated nature. Moreover, they are likely to be the product of several manufacturers, a substantial number of whom will not be of the category normally – and traditionally – involved with conventional ship construction, such as manufacturers of computer hardware, system analysts, software developers and so on.
