Autonomy: Risk Assessment

Oceanography and ocean observation in general are ever trending toward both automated in situ observation and working in extreme environments. These goals can only be met by de-risking the technology and deployment practices to acceptable levels of risks. A number of industries have standardized risk management processes to support the design and development of their systems. The lack of formal risk assessment of autonomous ocean vehicles has hindered the potential for true autonomy, which is required for exploring unstructured and unexplored environments. When discussing risks, different stakeholders may have different consequences foremost in mind. For example, the vehicle owner may be interested in risk of loss, whereas the user is interested in risk of vehicle unavailability. Other risks, such as legal risks and risk of collision, affect all stakeholders. This chapter presents a risk management process using several methods tailored to autonomous ocean vehicles in which risk assessment is a key component.