Review on Sensors for Sustainable and Safe Maritime Mobility

Abstract

The increasingly stringent requirements—in terms of limiting pollutants and the constant need to make maritime transport safer—generated the necessity to foresee different solutions that are original. According to the European Maritime Safety Agency, the total number of reported marine casualties and incidents is 21.173 over the period 2014–2021, with a yearly average of 2.647 casualties and incidents. According to the same source, 495 cases of pollution were reported in the period from 2014 to 2021. Marine pollution by ships’ fuel and other pollutants is linked to 64.2% of all pollution. It is mandatory to offer a new kind of ship that can exploit new technologies to increase safety for people and onboard goods. It has been found that existing marine structures for maritime mobility do not have essential sensors for avoiding emergency situations such as flooding, oil spills, or health situations requiring efficient monitoring. In addition, there is a lack of legislation defining the insertion of unmanned vehicles into the actual marine infrastructure. This review highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of sensors in the maritime sector, intensifying areas of improvement for future challenges, such as sensor energy efficiency, data processing, sensor fusion methodologies, and accurate sea state description with environmental monitoring by means of unmanned vehicles.