Global research interest in the domain of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) is dramatically increasing. With new prototypes planned to be set to the seas where various operational modes (OMs) are claimed, the issue of the safety evaluation of an MASS, and criteria for selecting the appropriate OM for given conditions remain open questions. This paper proposes a four-step risk-informed framework to assess risk in a scenario for an MASS operating at one of three OMs: manual control (MC), remote control (RC), and autonomous control (AC). To this end, the concept of risk priority numbers (RPNs), adopted from failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), is utilized. The required parameters to defined RPNs are obtained in the course of analyzing a model MASS accident with expert knowledge. The applicability of the proposed framework is demonstrated via a model MASS case study. Results reveal that, in the same scenario, the risk of MASS varied across the analyzed OMs. On the basis of the aggregated results for each operational mode, suggestions for OM switching are put forward.
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