A Risk Management Framework for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles Focusing on Human and Organizational Factors

This paper presents a risk management framework (RMF) for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV). UUV are tethered or untethered vehicles operating in hazardous surroundings. The RMF, as one of the first for UUV, emphasizes the need for considering human and organizational factors impact on risk. A case study on risk assessment has been carried out, covering the risk of loss and mission abort of an autonomous underwater vehicle. It is based on a case study of the Applied Underwater Robotics Laboratory of NTNU, which operates several UUV. The assessment applies human reliability analysis, fault tree analysis, and event tree analysis. The case study identified measures for risk reduction, such as improvement and adaptation of procedures for maintenance, planning of missions, and fault recognition and solving.