Artificial Intelligence Applications for Human-Factor Risk Reduction in Merchant Ship Operations: Regulatory Challenges and Future Maritime Safety Frameworks

Abstract

[Abstract] This systematic review examines how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies relevant to human-factor risk reduction can be integrated into international and Spanish maritime safety frameworks. The formal PRISMA corpus comprises 23 core sources (13 peer-reviewed studies and 10 regulatory, institutional or technical documents), while a separate supplementary search provides recent independent technical and regulatory evidence up to 31 August 2026. The analysis covers computer vision, thermal and near-infrared sensing, multimodal fusion, behavioral and fatigue analysis, and onboard edge processing, with particular attention to precision, recall, false alarms, latency, computational requirements and operational robustness. The evidence shows that high detection performance can be achieved in specific maritime datasets, but the reported values depend strongly on the task, sensor, dataset and hardware and cannot be treated as a universal accuracy threshold. A system architecture is therefore proposed in which heterogeneous sensors feed synchronized edge processing, event verification, alarm management, VDR-compatible event logging, and human confirmation with defined fail-safe behavior. On the regulatory side, the study proposes staged adaptations of SOLAS, the ISM Code, STCW, MLC and Spanish inspection frameworks. The 2026 IMO MASS Code, considered as supplementary regulatory evidence, provides a relevant precedent for goal-based approval, risk assessment and progressive operational experience. Fixed tonnage and implementation-date thresholds are consequently treated as illustrative parameters rather than validated requirements; any mandatory carriage provision should be supported by formal safety assessment, type approval and operational evidence. The resulting framework links electronics implementation with a short-, medium- and long-term regulatory roadmap for safer merchant-ship operations.