Modern ships represent a union of complex engineering complex and systems, which cannot be operated manually in some cases. In particular, this relates to a ship control. So, automatic systems come to help here. The level of automation defines efficiency of performance of ship power plant.

The remote automated control (RAC) system is used for ship velocity and travel direction control. RAC design depends on type of a propulsion unit.

Ship automation systems comprise programmable controllers, various transducers, control panels, various actuators, operator stations, main and back-up power supplies, signal processing equipment, and so on.

The majority of vessels of the Russian fleet are provided with standard automatic control systems. The minimum automation level is regulated by the Rules of the RMRS.