"Why This Avoidance Maneuver?" Contrastive Explanations in Human-Supervised Maritime Autonomous Navigation

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Jose, Joel, Madsen, Andreas, Brandsæter, Andreas, Johansen, Tor A., Coates, Erlend M.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Jose, Joel
Madsen, Andreas
Brandsæter, Andreas
Johansen, Tor A.
Coates, Erlend M.
author_facet Jose, Joel
Madsen, Andreas
Brandsæter, Andreas
Johansen, Tor A.
Coates, Erlend M.
contents Automated maritime collision avoidance will rely on human supervision for the foreseeable future. This necessitates transparency into how the system perceives a scenario and plans a maneuver. However, the causal logic behind avoidance maneuvers is often complex and difficult to convey to a navigator. This paper explores how to explain these factors in a selective, understandable manner for supervisors with a nautical background. We propose a method for generating contrastive explanations, which provide human-centric insights by comparing a system's proposed solution against relevant alternatives. To evaluate this, we developed a framework that uses visual and textual cues to highlight key objectives from a state-of-the-art collision avoidance system. An exploratory user study with four experienced marine officers suggests that contrastive explanations support the understanding of the system's objectives. However, our findings also reveal that while these explanations are highly valuable in complex multi-vessel encounters, they can increase cognitive workload, suggesting that future maritime interfaces may benefit most from demand-driven or scenario-specific explanation strategies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_08032
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle "Why This Avoidance Maneuver?" Contrastive Explanations in Human-Supervised Maritime Autonomous Navigation
Jose, Joel
Madsen, Andreas
Brandsæter, Andreas
Johansen, Tor A.
Coates, Erlend M.
Artificial Intelligence
Robotics
Automated maritime collision avoidance will rely on human supervision for the foreseeable future. This necessitates transparency into how the system perceives a scenario and plans a maneuver. However, the causal logic behind avoidance maneuvers is often complex and difficult to convey to a navigator. This paper explores how to explain these factors in a selective, understandable manner for supervisors with a nautical background. We propose a method for generating contrastive explanations, which provide human-centric insights by comparing a system's proposed solution against relevant alternatives. To evaluate this, we developed a framework that uses visual and textual cues to highlight key objectives from a state-of-the-art collision avoidance system. An exploratory user study with four experienced marine officers suggests that contrastive explanations support the understanding of the system's objectives. However, our findings also reveal that while these explanations are highly valuable in complex multi-vessel encounters, they can increase cognitive workload, suggesting that future maritime interfaces may benefit most from demand-driven or scenario-specific explanation strategies.
title "Why This Avoidance Maneuver?" Contrastive Explanations in Human-Supervised Maritime Autonomous Navigation
topic Artificial Intelligence
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.08032