A Mission Exchange Model (MEZ) for Autonomous Inland Waterway Navigation

Abstract Even if autonomous vessels can operate independently of a person monitoring or controlling it on some parts of the voyage, a Remote Operation Centre (ROC) is still needed. The ROC operator will be responsible for planning the voyage and to follow up on its operation. Also, the ROC operator will be responsible for handling those situations where human interventions are needed, either unforeseen situations, interactions with crewed vessels, or planned interaction with other operation centres, e.g., for bridges and locks. For an autonomous vessel to navigate on inland waterways (IWW), a clear description of the operations must be provided to the onboard Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) by the ROC operator. Further, the description of the mission must be sent from the ROC to the vessel and be handled by the ANS onboard to conduct the sailing from the departure to the arrival berth, including lock- and bridge passing. In this paper, we describe the requirements to a Mission Exchange Model (MEZ), investigate existing and relevant standards that cover mission data, and propose a format for such missions to be sent from the ROC to the ANS. We will also describe how the planning of the mission can be performed in the ROC, and we will present a test run with an autonomous sea drone that was performed in Trondheim, Norway, in 2025, to show case the usage of some parts of this MEZ.