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Open research questions in Maritime Navigation and Safety

144 gap statements mined from Maritime Navigation and Safety papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,224 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

Choosing where to publish on Maritime Navigation and Safety? See the ranked Engineering journals.

What the literature leaves open

  • Existing methods typically focus on single prediction objectives, which is insufficient for practical requirements. There is a need for a framework that can simultaneously handle multiple prediction tasks.

    A Geospatial Grid Constrained Deep Learning Prediction Framework Based on AIS Data for Improving Vessel Traffic Services in Maritime Internet of Things · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research can focus on testing the approach in real-world environments. Future research can focus on applying the approach to other areas of ship control, such as navigation and docking.

    Autonomous berthing path tracking of a 4-DOF ship under nonlinear model predictive control · 2026 · DOI

  • The gap is the need for more accurate prediction and control of ship motion. The gap is the need for more robust control methods that can respond to complex sea state and environmental changes.

    Autonomous berthing path tracking of a 4-DOF ship under nonlinear model predictive control · 2026 · DOI

  • The study does not provide a comprehensive evaluation of the drill's effectiveness. The study is limited to the MV Pacific Bulk ship and may not be generalizable to other ships.

    Analysis of the Implementation of Abandon ship drill to Face Emergency Situations on the MV Pacific Bulk Ship · 2026 · DOI

  • Further studies should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the drill. Studies should be conducted on other ships to generalize the findings.

    Analysis of the Implementation of Abandon ship drill to Face Emergency Situations on the MV Pacific Bulk Ship · 2026 · DOI

  • The study has a single-case study focus (Gas Arar) that lacks broad generalizability. The study relies on participant observation during a short period (July 2024-2025). The study lacks quantitative data, such as GPS error rates, in tropical conditions.

    Maintaining Maritime Safety Through the Use of Navigational Equipment in Accordance with Solas Chapter V · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of effective systems for maritime piracy detection and risk zone prediction.

    AI-Based Maritime Piracy Detection and Risk Zone Prediction System · 2026 · DOI

  • The availability of high-quality and diverse datasets was a primary limitation. The use of simulated and anonymized data limited the model's ability to generalize to real-world scenarios. The restriction imposed by the offline environment increased development time and complexity.

    AI-Based Maritime Piracy Detection and Risk Zone Prediction System · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of a global-scale travel-time prediction method. The need for a methodology that can handle noisy and incomplete AIS data.

    Historical Knowledge Graphs for Global Maritime Estimated Time of Arrival · 2026

  • Port State Control (PSC) inspections play a critical role in enforcing international maritime safety and environmental standards, yet little is known about how compliance behaviour interacts with economic cycles.

    Economic Cycles and Regulatory Compliance: A Bidirectional Analysis of Vessel Detentions Under Port State Control · 2026 · DOI

  • The manual review of accident reports can lead to biases, errors, and poor judgement. The vulnerability of LLMs to prompt injection attacks. The need to develop a RAG system that can extract user-required information from maritime accident reports.

    Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Maritime Accident Report Analysis: Evaluating Large Language Models on Performance and Cybersecurity · 2026 · DOI

  • Need for expertise in spatio-temporal databases and maritime domain knowledge.

    CLEAR: A Knowledge-Centric Vessel Trajectory Analysis Platform · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for a knowledge-centric approach to analyze AIS data. Prior work has addressed the challenges of analyzing AIS data, but there is still a gap in providing a platform that enables non-expert users to analyze vessel trajectories effectively.

    CLEAR: A Knowledge-Centric Vessel Trajectory Analysis Platform · 2026 · DOI

  • The high number of human-caused accidents in Indonesian waters is a research gap. The need for evaluation of BRM implementation on maritime safety is a research gap.

    Analysis of The Effectiveness of The Implementation of Bridge Resource Management On Shipping Safety · 2026 · DOI

  • The current credentialing system has significant gaps, particularly regarding cross-jurisdictional recognition mechanisms and real-time competency tracking capabilities. The research identifies a need for a comprehensive framework for maritime credentialing.

    Blockchain-Enhanced Maritime Education Ecosystem: Decentralized Credentialing for Global Seafarer Competency Verification · 2026 · DOI

  • Maritime students must develop fluency, grammatical accuracy and range, content organization, vocabulary, and pronunciation to communicate effectively in English. Effective English communication is crucial in maritime education, where it plays a significant role in classroom discussions, simulations, oral presentations, and future shipboard operations.

    Speaking Performance Among Maritime Students · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a need to assess the speaking performance of maritime students. There is a gap in understanding the level of speaking performance among maritime students.

    Speaking Performance Among Maritime Students · 2026 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need for further detail in certain areas of Saudi law. The study's conclusions may inform policy and regulatory decisions.

    Statutory Protection of Maritime Worker against Economic and Occupational Risks: An Analytical Study · 2026 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need for further research on the adequacy of statutory protections.

    Statutory Protection of Maritime Worker against Economic and Occupational Risks: An Analytical Study · 2026 · DOI

  • Quantitative SNR analysis. Further study on the impact of traffic density on VHF Channel 12 efficacy.

    Analysis of the Effectiveness of Using VHF Radio Channel 12 to Assist the Maneuvering Guidance Process on the Km. Binaiya Ship · 2026 · DOI

  • Integration of weather data and port congestion information into the knowledge graph. Investigation of data-driven modelling for learning complex spatial dependencies.

    Historical Knowledge Graphs for Global Maritime Estimated Time of Arrival · 2026

  • Technical obstacles or time constraints that prevent some charts from being updated optimally, - Busy watch duties and limited operational time, - Technical difficulties with the ECDIS…

    The Use of the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) in the Navigation Process on the MV. Hanwoori · 2026 · DOI

  • The need to analyze the deck officers' understanding level and identify factors that influence the effectiveness of ECDIS…

    The Use of the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) in the Navigation Process on the MV. Hanwoori · 2026 · DOI

  • Scarcity and underreporting of offshore accident data; complexity of identifying the causes and consequences of allision accidents; need for a more advanced probabilistic model for risk assessment…

    Probabilistic Risk model of Ship Allision Accidents with Offshore Platforms · 2026 · DOI

  • Further study of the causes and consequences of allision accidents; development of more advanced probabilistic models for risk assessment and management; application of the study's methodology to other types of accidents in the offshore…

    Probabilistic Risk model of Ship Allision Accidents with Offshore Platforms · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Maritime Navigation and Safety

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) There is a need for a framework that can simultaneously handle multiple prediction tasks (“A Geospatial Grid Constrained Deep Learning Prediction Framework Based on AIS…”, 2026); (2) Future research can focus on testing the approach in real-world environments (“Autonomous berthing path tracking of a 4-DOF ship under nonlinear model…”, 2026); (3) Further studies should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the drill (“Analysis of the Implementation of Abandon ship drill to Face Emergency…”, 2026); (4) The lack of effective systems for maritime piracy detection and risk zone prediction (“AI-Based Maritime Piracy Detection and Risk Zone Prediction System”, 2026); (5) Port State Control (PSC) inspections play a critical role in enforcing international maritime safety and environmental standards, yet little is known about how compliance behaviour interacts with economic cycles (“Economic Cycles and Regulatory Compliance: A Bidirectional Analysis of Vessel…”, 2026). 144 gap statements have been mined from Maritime Navigation and Safety papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,224 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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