CAPTN initiative reaches milestone: autonomous driving on the Kiel Fjord

The CAPTN initiative has reached a significant milestone. Our research vessel MS Wavelab recently began sailing autonomously – in other words, without the navigational intervention of a captain. “The building blocks that we have developed over the last four years are now coming together. We are handing over more and more control to the computer systems. We can now hand over control of the propulsion, path planning, dynamic adjustment and path following to the computer – all we have to do is tell the catamaran where we want to be at the end,” explains Nils Dohse from CAPTN Fjord Area project partner ADDIX. Sensors on board the Wavelab and object recognition that is now almost one hundred percent accurate allow the ship to recognize other road users, buoys or floats.

“The Automatic Identification System (AIS) and radar have been on board of ships for a long time. These systems provide information on other ships or larger obstacles, but can be faulty or incomplete. We therefore supplement the existing data with our optical recognition systems and only recognize an object if there is a sufficiently close match,” explains Dr. Hauke Schramm, Professor of Information Technology at Kiel University of Applied Sciences (UAS). The researchers at the UAS are working on this so-called sensor fusion together with those at Kiel University.

“The CAPTN initiative – which also includes the Fjord Area project – is an innovation project,” explains Prof. Dr. Dirk Nowotka of the Reliable Systems Group at CAU. “We are working on integrating the various systems – for example, AIS, radar, video and lidar – in such a way that they provide a consistent picture of the situation.” In the future, additional sensor data, such as sonar and audio data, will be added.

For several months now, the Wavelab has been able to evade, stop or avoid other road users. The automatic collision avoidance system installed by the manufacturer of navigation and bridge systems, Anschütz, analyzes the available sensor data in order to recognize possible collision risks with other ships and to execute appropriate maneuvers. “The COLREG algorithm is completely rule-based. It suggests routes – so-called trajectories – that have proven to be reliable, effective and well-parameterized in tests under various conditions and scenarios,” says Daniel Sommerstedt of Anschütz.

Together with the project partners – ADDIX GmbH, Anschütz GmbH, Kiel University, UAS Kiel, FuE-Zentrum FH Kiel GmbH and Wissenschaftszentrum Kiel – the CAPTN initiative is working on innovative technologies for the shipping of the future. The next step will be to develop mooring maneuvers for the Fjord Area project. In the long term, further transportation projects on water and on land are to follow in order to create a sustainable, demand-oriented and safe mobility chain.