3rd Workshop on Intelligent and Automated
Waterway Transportation
Aim of the workshop
The 3rd Workshop on Intelligent and Automated Waterway Transportation, which will take place on September 24th, 2024 at the 27th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Edmonton, Canada, aims at the promotion of technical and scientific exchange between industry, academia and authorities in the areas of autonomous waterway transportation, smart waterborne intermodal logistics and related topics. Presentations by invited experts will provide exciting insights into recent research achievements and innovative projects in these areas.
Outline
The objective of the workshop is the presentation and discussion of the latest advances in waterborne intelligent and automated systems. The workshop is an important platform within the ITS community, focusing on key issues in the development of autonomous vessels, such as advanced assistance systems, modelling and simulation, digital test field waterway, navigation, control concepts and automation of cargo handling. By focusing on these areas, the workshop aims to drive innovation, improve efficiency and enhance safety in waterborne transport, thus making a significant impact in the field of ITS. Renowned experts in the field will present their latest research and developments during the event, providing participants with valuable insights and updates on the latest breakthroughs.
Workshop schedule
| Time | Title | Speaker | Affiliation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:30-13:40 | Opening | Kathrin Donandt | University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany | Organization |
| 13:40-14:15 | Exploring the potential of AI tools for assessing navigational safety on German inland waterways | Dr. Lahbib Zentari | Federal Waterway Engineering and Research Institute, Germany | Keynote |
| 14:15-14:40 | Advancing Maritime Intelligent Systems: From Vessel Prediction to Anomaly Detection | Dr. Nicola Forti | University of Florence, Italy | Invited expert's presentation |
| 14:40-15:05 | Navigating Complexity: A Rule-Based Approach to Ensuring COLREG Compliance in Autonomous Surface Ships | Paul Koch | Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services, Germany | Invited expert's presentation |
| 15:05-15:30 | Provably safe reinforcement learning for autonomous vessels: Ensuring traffic rule compliance on the open sea | Hanna Krasowski | University of California, Berkeley, USA | Invited expert's presentation |
| 15:30-16:00 | Coffee Break | |||
| 16:00-16:25 | The Medium Frequency R-Mode Test Bed in Canada | Dr. Lars Grundhöfer | German Aerospace Center, Germany | Invited expert's presentation |
| 16:25-16:50 | Guidance, Navigation and safety-aware control of river ferries | Dr. Tim Reuscher | RWTH Aachen University, Germany | Invited expert's presentation |
| 16:50-17:25 | Discussion | |||
| 17:25-17:30 | Closing | Kathrin Donandt | University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany | Organization |
Please note: This schedule is tentative and subject to change.
Invited experts
Nicola Forti
Nicola holds a Ph.D. in Information Engineering and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Florence, Italy. His research interests span control theory, state estimation, sensor networks, data fusion, statistical signal processing, artificial intelligence, and data-driven modelling, with a focus on applications in cyber-physical systems, large-scale systems, and autonomous technologies. He has held prestigious research positions such as Visiting Scholar at Carnegie Mellon University and Researcher at the NATO Science & Technology Organisation - Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation. His research addresses critical aspects of maritime surveillance and autonomous shipping, including maritime situational awareness, anomaly detection and navigation. His publication record reflects his commitment to using cutting-edge technologies to enhance maritime safety, security and sustainability.
Title of talk: Advancing Maritime Intelligent Systems: From Vessel Prediction to Anomaly Detection
Lars Grundhöfer
Lars holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the TU Ilmenau, Germany. He is currently working as a researcher for the German Aerospace Center, Institute of Communications and Navigation. His research primarily focuses on the development and enhancement of terrestrial navigation systems, particularly the medium-frequency R-Mode system, which serves as a backup to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). His work addresses the accuracy and reliability of position, navigation, and timing information in maritime contexts, especially when GNSS is unavailable or unreliable. He also explores the integration of terrestrial navigation with other systems, like low-cost software-defined radios and hybrid GNSS-terrestrial localization methods, aiming to enhance overall maritime navigation safety and reliability.
Title of talk: The Medium Frequency R-Mode Test Bed in Canada
Paul Koch
Paul is a researcher at the Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services (CML), Germany. His research primarily focuses on enhancing situational awareness and collision avoidance for maritime autonomous surface ships through systems compliant with the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). He also contributes to developing standards for evaluating and certifying AI-based decision-making systems for autonomous vessels. Through these areas of research, Paul significantly contributes to advancing the capabilities and safety of autonomous maritime systems and the broader adoption of AI technologies in the maritime industry.
Title of talk: Navigating Complexity: A Rule-Based Approach to Ensuring COLREG Compliance in Autonomous Surface Ships
Hanna Krasowski
Hanna is in the final stages of completing her Ph.D. at the Cyber-Physical Systems Group at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Starting in June, she will join the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, as a postdoctoral researcher. Her work combines the flexibility of reinforcement learning with the reliable guarantees of formal methods. In her research, she also addresses the challenges of compliance with marine traffic rules and the integration of safety measures in autonomous shipping technologies. Hanna conducts experiments on various motion planning scenarios, including those involving marine vessels. She is the principal developer of the CommonOcean Benchmarking Software, which provides researchers with tools for evaluating and comparing their maritime motion planners. Despite being early in her career, she has supervised several theses and authored multiple publications on topics such as safe reinforcement learning, motion planning, and formal methods for autonomous vessels.
Title of talk: Provably safe reinforcement learning for autonomous vessels: Ensuring traffic rule compliance on the open sea
Tim Reuscher
Tim is a researcher and head of Mobility and Navigation Solutions at the Institute of Automatic Control at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, specializes in trajectory planning, tracking, vehicle control and multi-sensor fusion-based localization. His research in the field of shipping focuses on developing advanced control methodologies for autonomous vessels and ferries, particularly in challenging environments. Tim has contributed to projects like FernBin and AutoFerry, which aim to enhance the automation of inland vessels and ferries. These projects address issues such as robust navigation, efficient path planning, and obstacle avoidance in confined waterways and coastal environments, aiming to improve safety and operational efficiency in maritime transport.
Title of talk: Guidance, Navigation and safety-aware control of river ferries
Lahbib Zentari (keynote)
Lahbib is currently a researcher in the Shipping Department of the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, Germany. He holds a master’s degree in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering from the Bremen University of Applied Sciences in Germany and a Ph.D. in Computational Fluid Dynamics from the UDE. His main areas of research are experimental and computational fluid dynamics applied to manoeuvring problems in extremely confined waters. In this context, he is responsible for the development of manoeuvring simulation tools, which are widely used in nautical studies at BAW. Furthermore, his research has found new applications in the development of simulation environments for autonomous vessels. He has published several papers in the field of extreme shallow water manoeuvring.
Title of talk: Exploring the potential of AI tools for assessing navigational safety on German inland waterways
Expected participation
Members of industry, research, consultancy and public authorities in the field of autonomous shipping, intelligent water-based logistics and related topics are the the target audience of this workshop. If you do not belong to this target audience, but are interested in the workshop’s subject, do not hesitate to join us! Please make sure to register for the ITSC Workshop Day in order to be able to participate.
Organizers
- Jannis Daubner, Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, Germany
- Kathrin Donandt1, University of Duisburg-Essen & Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, Germany
- Frédéric Etienne Kracht, Development Center for Ship Technology and Transport Systems e. V. (DST), Germany
- Philipp Sieberg, Schotte Automotive GmbH & Co. KG., Germany & University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
- Lahbib Zentari, Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, Germany
