Anschütz starts work on X-Ferry

At the end of last year, the CAPTN initiative from Kiel launched the new research project, X-Ferry. After successfully testing autonomous navigation with the test vessel MV Wavelab, the focus of X-Ferry is on explaining the technical processes and communicating with users. The project represents another milestone on the path towards highly automated ship navigation.

Anschütz, the world leader in navigation systems, is also part of the research project. The focus of the research at Anschütz is on providing real situational awareness and optimising the maritime situational picture as a basis for decisions made by the autonomous navigation system. There are also plans to adapt the process to other prototypes, test vessels and simulators. 

The acceptance of users, ship operators, licensing authorities and the general public as users of autonomous ferries is increased by making the behaviour and decision paths of automated processes and systems in navigation transparent and comprehensible. 

Anschütz focuses on two main aspects:

• Improving the presentation of the situational picture in terms of information structure and presentation, dynamics, and integration of additional sensor data. Recommendations for action and decisions can be better derived and understood from an optimal situational picture.
• Better handling of alarms to make critical situations more visible. This includes further reduction and prioritisation of alarms, with the goal of a faster and better understanding of emerging alarms and recommendations for action.

The combination of relevant and reliable situation analysis and intelligent alerting promotes rapid assessment of the current maritime situation and potential dangers, as well as fast and correct decision making. In addition to its use in autonomous vessels, the implementation of this technology in bridge systems also represents a significant step towards a periodically unmanned bridge and, in the long term, enables a reduction in the number of crew members on board. It is therefore also planned to adapt the process for other prototypes, testbeds and simulators.

X-Ferry continues the research of the CAPTN projects Fjord Area and Fjord 5G. In these projects, the MV Wavelab has been built as a test vessel to carry out autonomous driving tests on the Kiel Fjord and in a designated test area. These tests are monitored and remotely controlled from a remote operations centre at Anschütz. 

The basis for autonomous navigation is the SYNAPSIS NX Integrated Navigation System (INS) from Anschütz, which analyses the central data and alarm management, as well as data from all sensors and systems, and combines them into a consistent maritime situational picture. Additional sensors for autonomous ships, such as camera systems with object recognition, enrich the situation analysis, and new functions, such as collision avoidance, provide effective decision templates that can also be automatically processed by the system. The INS also controls the ship’s dynamic motion through its integrated Trackpilot and Speedpilot functionality.

In addition to Anschütz, partners in the X-Ferry research project include the University of Kiel, the R&D centre Kiel University of Applied Sciences GmbH, Vater GmbH, HHVision and the Flensburg University of Applied Sciences. The research project is funded by the Maritime Research Programme of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.