AUTOSHIP’s final period has been characterised by the effort to plan and execute the demos while finalising the remaining research work, stakeholders’ engagement, and business studies. A significant milestone for autonomous ships in Europe has, in fact, been achieved with the demonstrators’ events and test runs of the Eidsvaag Pioneer (Alesund, Norway, May 25th, 2023) and Zulu04 (Bornem, Belgium, June 1st, 2023) respectively in WP4 and WP5.
On the research side, WP7 concluded its activities during M42. In this reporting period, the gaps previously identified during WP2 in the existing legal, regulatory and liability frameworks for the two AUTOSHIP use cases (the IWW barge and the SSS cargo ship) were addressed by a comprehensive review of the international pertinent literature by the regulatory framework analysis as well as by looking at relevant autonomous ship projects’ outcomes. Four degrees of autonomy were considered as identified in the Regulatory Scoping Exercising (RSE). The WP has also delved into the socio-economic and environmental aspects of autonomy. The impacts of autonomous ships were in fact evaluated, and a Cost Benefit Analysis was elaborated by selecting appropriate KPIs consistent with those defined in previous reporting periods. These KPIs consider the GHG, pollution, noise, as well as better load capacity and operational benefits for both demonstrators (SSS and IWW). These are compared to well-defined reference cases, including a comparison with trucks and highlighting the synergy with novel ships' green designs.
As per the business perspective in WP8, the high-level roadmap for the realisation of large-scale intercontinental autonomous maritime logistics was completed in this period. Based on the scope of this roadmap, four main segments that are essential components of the large-scale intercontinental logistic chain have been identified: Inland waterways, sheltered water shuttles, shortsea (international and national long distance), and deep-sea.
On the other hand, AUTOSHIP has successfully contributed to the work of IMO for crucial aspects such as terminology and definitions for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS).
Concerning stakeholders’ engagement and go-to-market perspectives, in WP9 the beneficiaries have kept performing several dissemination activities, communicating the project results through participation in conferences, publication of papers, organisation of events, and elaborating different AUTOSHIP videos and documentaries. A joint effort in the project has identified numerous assets, their IP set-ups and their progressive introduction on the market, which will require regulation and further technical steps to fully exploit the potential of the technology over the next decade. Many activities have involved external advisory groups and other stakeholders, along with the outreach strategy and impact assessment defined in WP6.
As further element of its success, AUTOSHIP has also actively collaborated with the sisters' projects AEGIS (GA 859992) and MOSES (GA 861678), while introducing to the community follow-up initiatives like the SEAMLESS project (GA 101096923), to create new synergies and contribute to the next generation research and innovation in the autonomous ship industry. A final AUTOSHIP event was held on November 7th, 2023, at the Europort Exhibition in Rotterdam Ahoy (NL), in collaboration with the sister projects AEGIS and MOSES, where technology, business cases and regulation were addressed in thematic sessions.
