Technical readiness of autonomous vessels in inland waterway transport

• Technology readiness assessment of uncrewed autonomous inland vessels. • Direct control, operator assisted and constrained autonomous operations are assessed. • Autonomous vessel and infrastructure technologies are defined and described. • Ten technical gaps that are barriers to technical readiness are identified. • The study recommends measures to overcome the barriers to technical readiness. The inland waterway transport (IWT) sector in Europe is expected to increase its modal share of cargo transport by 50 % and transition towards zero green-house gas emissions by 2050. Current decarbonisation policies focus on alternative fuel technologies, which imply increased costs. Modal shift improvements require IWT to be cost competitive with road transport. These are conflicting requirements. In this context, autonomous inland vessels (AIVs) have been proposed as a solution that can contribute both to a transition towards zero emissions, and to improve the IWT competitiveness. We investigate whether uncrewed AIVs are technically ready for transport operations on inland waterways. The assessment considers three AIV operational modes: Direct control, operated assisted and constrained autonomous operations. The results show that none of the operational modes are technically ready today, and ten technical gaps were found to be barriers. Lock mooring is the only gap that is common to all operational modes, and the only barrier to direct control. Operator assisted and constrained autonomous operations require several short-term and long-term actions. We stress that several measures are needed to close the identified gaps, and propose a pathway towards technical readiness by a set of recommendations. These include research actions to find technical solutions, standardisation of technical solutions for scale-up and cost reduction purposes, acceleration funding to first movers and adopters of AIV technologies that improves inland waterway transport competitiveness, and investment support to infrastructure owners to install technologies that AIVs depend upon.