Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AUTOSHIP (Autonomous Shipping Initiative for European Waters)
Reporting period: 2020-12-01 to 2021-11-30
Europe is effectively supporting new paradigms of multimodal transport to develop sustainable businesses and relieve roads congestion and related pollution. However, its capacity in this scenario is not keeping the pace yet and it needs improvement. In fact, coastal short-sea shipping and inland waterways struggle with competition from trucks in many parts of EU and are losing relative market shares to road transport.
AUTOSHIP has the ambitious objective to take a NGAS technology on the market within 5 years. During the projects two demonstrators will be assembled by retrofitting existing but recent vessels and tested at TRL 7, along with their Shore infrastructure (SCC-Shore Control Centers) and Connectivity Systems.
The project will retrofit and operate 2 different autonomous vessels, demonstrating their operative capabilities in Short Sea Shipping and Inland Water Ways scenarios, with a focus on goods mobility.
The use cases developed within the project will optimize efforts and investments in order to advance common standards and enabling operations in a shorter timeframe than expected: this will allow commercial applications of the technology behind the next generation of autonomous ships by the end of 2023.
For this scope, AUTOSHIP aims at:
• developing KET and completing the two use-cases characterizations to help defining new logistics business models, considering the advantages of the NGAS technology
• defining the regulatory framework and bring it forward with a direct interaction with relevant authorities
• advancing in knowledge and training for academia and practitioners
• completing cost-benefit analyses to make sure that every societal and environmental effect is considered into a Decision Support System for shipowners and a good roadmap for the adoption of the NGAS and further development is prepared for decision makers.
AUTOSHIP has the ambitious objective to take a NGAS technology on the market within 5 years. During the projects two demonstrators will be assembled by retrofitting existing but recent vessels and tested at TRL 7, along with their Shore infrastructure (SCC-Shore Control Centers) and Connectivity Systems.
The project will retrofit and operate 2 different autonomous vessels, demonstrating their operative capabilities in Short Sea Shipping and Inland Water Ways scenarios, with a focus on goods mobility.
The use cases developed within the project will optimize efforts and investments in order to advance common standards and enabling operations in a shorter timeframe than expected: this will allow commercial applications of the technology behind the next generation of autonomous ships by the end of 2023.
For this scope, AUTOSHIP aims at:
• developing KET and completing the two use-cases characterizations to help defining new logistics business models, considering the advantages of the NGAS technology
• defining the regulatory framework and bring it forward with a direct interaction with relevant authorities
• advancing in knowledge and training for academia and practitioners
• completing cost-benefit analyses to make sure that every societal and environmental effect is considered into a Decision Support System for shipowners and a good roadmap for the adoption of the NGAS and further development is prepared for decision makers.
The first 2 periods have been characterized by substantial technical advancement, preparatory work for the demonstrators, relevant research work to define common tools, and original framework analyses for the autonomous vessels’ community, along with an excellent project outreach.
The development of the KET related to Vessel Control, remote operations control and the Connectivity System between vessel and shore is progressing. It is based on thorough requirements capturing process involving both internal and external stakeholders. Essential supporting documentation like CONOPS and Storyboards have been established. Significant progress has been made in the areas of simulator modelling and infrastructure requirements analysis. Preparing the vessels for the demonstrations, new sensors are being installed, and upgrades of essential automation, control and navigation system are planned and prepared. To secure the authorization of the demonstration and the related regulatory aspect, agreements have been set in place with the involved authorities.
The general approach is to have public "framework" deliverables and publications related to more detailed topics. Some of them are: Supply-chain mapping and modelling, Design standards, methods and tools, Gaps and compliance - regulatory and operational, Security and Safety analysis and methods definition, Generic Business Case model.
The regulatory framework has been reviewed. The results are available in the public document systematic assessment and investigation of the required framework to develop and test the next generation autonomous ships demonstrators. On its way to identifying Gaps and Barriers, the risk acceptance criteria have been developed and completed for the Inland Waterways Vessel. Novel methods have been applied to define acceptance criteria that can be compliant with Safety, Security, Cybersecurity regulations, rules and standards.
A framework for autonomous ship design standards has been published, along with a framework for concept design and test principles for autonomous ship systems, and a cost-benefit analysis tool for early design phases. The project business case was developed, supporting the MASS Analysis tool software.
Stakeholder engagement has progressed well. It has included a thorough survey compiled by 170 experts and the definition and engagement of a project SAG, which involves representatives of regulatory bodies and standards, directly involved in providing feedback and making sure that there is a synergy with other relevant projects in the field.
The communication and dissemination campaigns have been remarkable, leading AUTOSHIP to the major fora, including a BBC interview.
The development of the KET related to Vessel Control, remote operations control and the Connectivity System between vessel and shore is progressing. It is based on thorough requirements capturing process involving both internal and external stakeholders. Essential supporting documentation like CONOPS and Storyboards have been established. Significant progress has been made in the areas of simulator modelling and infrastructure requirements analysis. Preparing the vessels for the demonstrations, new sensors are being installed, and upgrades of essential automation, control and navigation system are planned and prepared. To secure the authorization of the demonstration and the related regulatory aspect, agreements have been set in place with the involved authorities.
The general approach is to have public "framework" deliverables and publications related to more detailed topics. Some of them are: Supply-chain mapping and modelling, Design standards, methods and tools, Gaps and compliance - regulatory and operational, Security and Safety analysis and methods definition, Generic Business Case model.
The regulatory framework has been reviewed. The results are available in the public document systematic assessment and investigation of the required framework to develop and test the next generation autonomous ships demonstrators. On its way to identifying Gaps and Barriers, the risk acceptance criteria have been developed and completed for the Inland Waterways Vessel. Novel methods have been applied to define acceptance criteria that can be compliant with Safety, Security, Cybersecurity regulations, rules and standards.
A framework for autonomous ship design standards has been published, along with a framework for concept design and test principles for autonomous ship systems, and a cost-benefit analysis tool for early design phases. The project business case was developed, supporting the MASS Analysis tool software.
Stakeholder engagement has progressed well. It has included a thorough survey compiled by 170 experts and the definition and engagement of a project SAG, which involves representatives of regulatory bodies and standards, directly involved in providing feedback and making sure that there is a synergy with other relevant projects in the field.
The communication and dissemination campaigns have been remarkable, leading AUTOSHIP to the major fora, including a BBC interview.
On one side the project will focus on demonstrating the KETs, on the other it will contribute to build an Autonomous Ship Vision, with a particular focus on the goods mobility value-chain: a comprehensive mapping of the related issues and perspective scenarios will be carried on.
Besides, AUTOSHIP strongly focuses on short-term exploitation of project outputs, based on a market-driven R&D transfer of mature technologies, to be validated at TRL 7 and ready to reach TRL 9 starting from 2023 already.
Impact over business: Autonomous vessels may impact differently on various shipping sectors depending on their initial conditions. In this sense IWW and SSS scenarios are very different and provide a nice complementary pair. As a simplified explanation, where current businesses struggle to renew and stay alive – let alone expanding – autonomous ships will provide a unique leverage to make it viable, while on more robust businesses, autonomous shipping will still improve economic performances. New businesses in the field of remote services or infrastructure management are likely to be developed.
Impact over sustainability: Autonomous shipping development is compatible with sustainability and the need to build greener ships in multiple ways. On a single ship perspective, the unmanned vessels will also ease electric drivetrains on smaller and slower vessels. A new design with less room for crew and the generally lower OPEX enables using these resources for green technologies investments. The change in logistics and organisational measures (including anchor time, mission speed/consumption). A push for fleet renewal by decreasing the investment costs and improving business cases.
Road Decongestion: former macro analyses demonstrate that at least 87 Mio tonnes of the continental cargo currently transported by road (TAM c.a. 237 Mio tonnes) is suited for intermodal transport along to the existing waterway corridors. The results of AUTOSHIP brought to scale will unlock the enormous potential impact of waterborne transport to relieve roads and save 88% of GHG emissions to move the same amount of goods per mileage.
Economic, environmental and safety issues are most relevant dimensions to be included into the design and the business case definition of autonomous vessels at an early stage. Logistic operators, experts of regulations and authorities in the consortium will provide a view over operational, liabilities and legal requirements. On the other hand, decision support tools will be completed. The results will include a thorough cost-benefit analyses. This will also support AUTOSHIP’s challenge in disseminating information about the demonstration cases to the public in a way that keeps them well informed about the benefits and also of the risks and how they are controlled, including the main professional organisations for workers at sea and in ports.
Besides, AUTOSHIP strongly focuses on short-term exploitation of project outputs, based on a market-driven R&D transfer of mature technologies, to be validated at TRL 7 and ready to reach TRL 9 starting from 2023 already.
Impact over business: Autonomous vessels may impact differently on various shipping sectors depending on their initial conditions. In this sense IWW and SSS scenarios are very different and provide a nice complementary pair. As a simplified explanation, where current businesses struggle to renew and stay alive – let alone expanding – autonomous ships will provide a unique leverage to make it viable, while on more robust businesses, autonomous shipping will still improve economic performances. New businesses in the field of remote services or infrastructure management are likely to be developed.
Impact over sustainability: Autonomous shipping development is compatible with sustainability and the need to build greener ships in multiple ways. On a single ship perspective, the unmanned vessels will also ease electric drivetrains on smaller and slower vessels. A new design with less room for crew and the generally lower OPEX enables using these resources for green technologies investments. The change in logistics and organisational measures (including anchor time, mission speed/consumption). A push for fleet renewal by decreasing the investment costs and improving business cases.
Road Decongestion: former macro analyses demonstrate that at least 87 Mio tonnes of the continental cargo currently transported by road (TAM c.a. 237 Mio tonnes) is suited for intermodal transport along to the existing waterway corridors. The results of AUTOSHIP brought to scale will unlock the enormous potential impact of waterborne transport to relieve roads and save 88% of GHG emissions to move the same amount of goods per mileage.
Economic, environmental and safety issues are most relevant dimensions to be included into the design and the business case definition of autonomous vessels at an early stage. Logistic operators, experts of regulations and authorities in the consortium will provide a view over operational, liabilities and legal requirements. On the other hand, decision support tools will be completed. The results will include a thorough cost-benefit analyses. This will also support AUTOSHIP’s challenge in disseminating information about the demonstration cases to the public in a way that keeps them well informed about the benefits and also of the risks and how they are controlled, including the main professional organisations for workers at sea and in ports.