Sustainable urban freight transport with autonomous zero-emission vessels

The AVATAR project is funded by the "European Union from the EU Interreg North Sea Region 2014-2020" as part of the European Regional Development Fund and runs from 1 May 2020 to 30 June 2023.

Motivation

The massive underutilisation of inland waterways (IWW) in the North Sea region, especially in urban areas, offers opportunities for technological innovation. The average external costs (congestion, accidents, air pollution, climate, noise, etc.) for inland waterway transport are 3.9 euro cents/tkm, while this figure is 70% higher for road transport. Nevertheless, urban freight transport by water is currently not economically viable, which has already led to the scrapping of more than 12% of small vessels (CEMT I-II) in the last decade. Crew costs for these vessels can account for up to 60% of total transport costs. Increased automation will therefore be crucial to revitalise a sustainable and economically viable solution for the use of waterways in urban areas.

Objectives and approach

The AVATAR project aims to develop and deploy zero-emission autonomous shipping units that could enable and establish regular transport between urban consolidation centres, e.g. by using canals to shift last-mile traffic from road to water. The project aims to further explore these challenges by developing, testing and evaluating suitable technologies and business models for urban autonomous zero-emission inland waterway transport. In this way, the project unlocks the economic potential of "city ships" and associated waterways, increases the available solutions for the full automation of the cycle and develops sustainable supply chain models for urban goods distribution and waste management.

The research project is committed to emission-free, autonomous inland waterway transport and aims to integrate the less heavily used inland waterways into freight transport through technological innovation. The project focuses on transport between outsourcing transport centres and inner-city transport hubs, with an emphasis on the distribution of palletised goods with waste recycling. Specifically, the modular autonomous vessels will handle passenger and freight transport in regions with a dense network of waterways (canals) by providing hourly transport between cities, external transhipment centres and inner-city transport hubs.

Initially, the economic potential of urban vessels and associated waterways (<100T) will be developed, followed by an increase in the full automation of inland waterway transport (including waste recycling) and the development of a sustainable supply chain model for urban freight transport.

By developing and trialling the relevant technologies and business models, the aim is to encourage the logistics sector to introduce these innovative systems in regions with similar geographical opportunities. The pilot cities are Ghent, Leuven, Hamburg and Delft. The data from the AVATAR test will serve as a basis for policy makers to evaluate different technological pathways to achieve the European and regional sustainability targets by 2030 and 2050.