Green light for SeaBot course
Training provider SeaBot Maritime has received UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) voluntary recognition for its maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) Remote Operator training course. Developed jointly by SeaBot and Fugro Middle East, the course is intended as the first module in SeaBot’s wider MASS Certified Professional training scheme (MCP) – “a career pathway devised as a framework for users of uncrewed vessels”, the company says. Further MCP modules will be rolled out globally from 2023, covering autonomous subsurface vehicles, motherships and remote operations centres.
The MCA has the power to grant ‘voluntary recognition’ to non-mandatory courses introduced to enhance the safety of maritime personnel where formal guidelines do not currently exist. Rob Gale, autonomy vessel training lead at the MCA, adds: “Gaining MCA voluntary recognition demonstrates that, in the absence of internationally agreed standards for MASS training, SeaBot Maritime’s training promotes maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment whilst seeking to promote best practice within the industry.”
SeaBot’s instructor-led MASS training features a mixture of “synthetic environment and on-water learning”, incorporating virtual/augmented reality and 3D visualisation tools. The company’s training academy is situated at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. SeaBot CEO Gordon Meadow comments: “[Our] course framework mirrors the MCA’s regulatory approach across autonomy in helping embrace and create robust frameworks for the future needs for new and novel technologies as they emerge, such as MASS, within UK law and regulation.”
