In recent years, the focus of automation has shifted to collaboration between humans and robots. It is clear that human-centered design is crucial to achieve a successful collaboration, as it improves job quality, builds trust, and avoids design flaws by involving workers throughout the process. However, designing successful human-robot collaboration is difficult due to the multitude of stakeholders and the complexity of real world environments.

According to the literature, several pitfalls can hinder successful automation. First, automation is often perceived as a substitute for human work, leading designers to overlook how automation impacts the overall functioning of the system and neglect human factors in the design process. However, in practice, human work will always coexist with automation. Second, there is often too much focus on technical aspects, which causes the broader implications for the surrounding environment to be ignored and results in a failure to design for human work. Third, there is a gap between designers and workers, leading to an oversimplified understanding of human work and the implementation of technologies that do not align with workers’ needs. To address these issues, workers must be involved in the design process from the beginning through human-centered design methods. Additionally, the broader implications of automation must be understood.

The aim of this thesis was to explore how a human-centered transition to a more automated work environment can be ensured at the start of automation projects. To investigate this, a case study was conducted on hydrographic survey work in a major Dutch seaport: The Port of Rotterdam. In this port, the transition to a more automated work environment is planned but not yet defined, creating an opportunity to develop a proactive approach.

First, in order to get a clear picture of the trends that shape autonomous shipping, an analysis of the macro environment was done by looking at political, environmental, sociodemographic, technological, economic and legal factors (PESTEL). From this it became apparent that there are many developments related to autonomous shipping in the industry, like the use of shore control centers and that Dutch regulations allow for unmanned vessels in 2025, making it likely that unmanned surface vessels (USV) will become operational in the near future. This thesis proposes an approach consisting of four practical steps to secure a more human-centered transition at the start of automation projects and applies them to the case study:

1. Identify key actors in the current process
From mapping out the ecosystem and information flows, it became clear that surveyors, skippers and VTS operators would be in direct contact with unmanned surface vessels and that their communication is key in survey operations in the port.

2. Understand the broadness of their work
Through context research it became clear that surveying at high traffic areas is intense for skippers, that surveyors dislike errors in the data and that VTS operators value predictability and experience overload in their work.

3. Understand their expectations of automation
Through interviews with surveyors, skippers and VTS operators, it became clear that the implementation of an unmanned surface vessel could have a negative impact on their work. For VTS operators, the USV could be an extra burden at peak times, skippers disliked working from an office and surveyors did not like increased measurement errors and technical issues.

4. Explore value creation with worker-technology fit
Through exploring worker automation fit it became clear that a hybrid scenario is necessary to allow skippers to also work in the field. Additionally, it is important that workers closely collaborate with development teams to quickly resolve technical issues with the USV. Since there is currently no digital VTS, a human skipper must remain in direct contact with a VTS operator for now. Here, communication delays must be prevented. A potential advantage for VTS operators is that the USV could share its tracks in the future. The USV must also be able to operate in areas with high traffic density. One way to achieve this is by leveraging the flexibility of remote control, ensuring that the USV is deployed in these areas only when vessel traffic is low. This would prevent VTS operators from being overloaded by the USV during peak times. It would also ensure that skippers do not have to conduct surveys mainly in busy areas because the USV cannot do so, and that surveyors do not receive poor-quality data due to prop wash disturbances from other vessels.

These insights led to a final scenario with a phased out implementation in which a hybrid, remote control approach is presented.