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Dr Kimberly Tam, Theme Lead for Marine and Maritime, Sustainability Mission, Alan Turing Institute
Dr Kimberly Tam is Theme Lead for Marine and Maritime for the Sustainability Mission at the Alan Turing Institute and Associate Professor at the University of Plymouth. The Sustainability mission focuses on the safe decarbonisation of transportation networks, manufacturing processes and critical infrastructure, to create pathways to net zero. The mission uses the tools of data-centric engineering, pioneered by researchers at the Turing in partnership with Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a global safety charity with a mission to engineer a safer world. She is also the Chief Scientist of Riskocity Ltd.
Around 90% of the world’s goods by value are transported across oceans, making efficient maritime systems essential in powering the world’s economy. But economic growth should not come at the cost of our ocean’s health.
Artificial intelligence and advances in maritime technology present a new opportunity to create more efficient shipping routes and reduce shipping emissions. But the use of this technology is not without risk. That's why embedding security in autonomous maritime vehicles is essential. Realising the benefits of autonomous shipping depends on developing systems that are trustworthy and resilient by design.
As more vessels adopt AI for navigation and control, the potential consequences of cyberattacks increase. In order to ensure the safety of autonomous marine vehicles, safety must be considered and embedded at every stage, from system design to implementation.
The SeXTANT (Secure x Trustworthy AI Navigation) project addresses this challenge.
The project is a collaboration between the Alan Turing Institute’s Sustainability mission, Lloyd’s Register Foundation and the University of Plymouth. Its goal is to drive innovation in autonomous shipping while ensuring that safety and security remain foundational principles.
The SeXTANt project builds on earlier work from the SAIMAS (Secure AI within Maritime Autonomy Systems) project which focused on mitigating the cyber vulnerabilities of AI on autonomous sea drones.
AI has the potential to enhance situational awareness on autonomous ships by augmenting the “eyes and ears” of ships with intelligent sensors to detect obstacles and other objects.
However, in the same way that ship crews must be trained to use their senses and work as a team to mitigate mistakes, AI needs similar training. Research has shown that AI systems relying on a single stream of input, such as camera imagery, are particularly vulnerable to adversarial attacks.
Our research showed how an AI model trained to recognise a submarine can be manipulated into identifying it as a completely unrelated object. These errors are not theoretical; they highlight how fragile perception systems can be when operating in isolation.
For example, in the image below, a warship was misclassified as a person after adversarial manipulation.
A key insight from the SeXTANT research is that AI closely mirrors humans and human senses. Namely, making decisions on a single stream of input, such as eyes for humans or cameras for AI, was prone to targeted attacks and exploitation. The work also showed that data fusion, which combines multiple inputs from radar, cameras and sensors, reduced errors, and the risk of intentional cyber-attacks.
The International Maritime Organisation is in the process of developing regulatory frameworks for autonomous vehicles. These regulations are essential to the longevity and growth of the wider autonomous marine vehicle sector. A new collaboration between Lloyd’s Register and the Alan Turing Institute seeks to ensure that advanced research which could speed up its adoption by helping to develop strong and reliable standards that benefit the wider maritime sector. This project represents a pivotal step in advancing our understanding of how AI can be integrated into autonomous shipping and ocean monitoring, with the potential to accelerate progress toward fully automated maritime operations.
As autonomous technologies evolve, ensuring robust cybersecurity and safety frameworks is essential. Embedding these protections now will be critical to securing the future development and widespread adoption of autonomous shipping technologies.
In this article, Dr Darshana Godaliyadde, Director for the Resilience4Ports initiative, discusses how the programme is empowering global ports to adapt, securing not only trade but also local employment, food security, and community well-being.
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In this blog, our Chairman, Thomas Thune Andersen, emphasises why ports must adapt to the increasing challenges of climate change, and discusses how a nature-positive approach to port development can support sustainable economic growth and environmental stewardship.
