References

Autonomous driving will exist on land and at sea in the future. Many decisions regarding ship behaviour are already being implemented by technical systems. The prerequisite for fully autonomous driving is acceptance by the nautical staff and - especially when used in passenger transport such as on ferries - by the passengers. Acceptance of an autonomously operated ferry requires trust in the system and its behaviour. Only when the behaviour meets expectations and requirements, especially in critical and dangerous situations, can people fully engage with the autonomy and at some point perceive it as ‘normal’. In the case of autonomous car-based driving, this acceptance is achieved, for example, by continuous self-declaration of the automated functions.

The aim of ‘X-FERRY’ is to research the basic technology for an automatic self-declaration of the behaviour of autonomous ships that goes beyond this, using the example of a ferry and thus creating the basis for future innovative products.

DSN coordinated the development of the project outline and the full proposal. Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel has received funding of 1.28 million euros for the X-Ferry project from the Maritime Research Programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) since October 2024. The project has a total volume of 4.5 million euros.

• website of the project

• Back to overview