Autonomous vessels meet autonomous ports

Photo: Grieg Connect

Grieg Connect participates in AEGIS, a project aiming to develop new and more competitive systems for waterborne transport. Funded by the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, The three-year AEGIS project will show that autonomous ships and automation in ports can make waterborne transport much more flexible and user-friendly while further reducing the environmental impact of EU transport. Grieg Connect will alongside Cargotec’s Kalmar and MacGregor be the technology providers for the project.

Small ships and inland barges can decongest roads, reduce pollution from noise and dust, while operating on batteries or other non-carbon fuels to provide green transport solutions. By automating ports and terminals and use these to integrate longer distance ship operations with the smaller ships, a completely new European transport system can be developed. More flexible and user-centric transport, better services to rural as well as urban areas and a revitalization of the regional ports and city terminals is the goal.

The AEGIS use-cases are located in North Europe and represent typical inter-European transports that need to be linked to local distribution systems. Case A is led by North Sea Container Line in cooperation with the the Port of Trondheim. It uses small cargo shuttles to link coastal container ships to rural and urban destinations in the region. This saves time for the larger ships and adds flexibility and frequency with the shuttles. Case B is led by DFDS and will link RORO short sea services in BeNeLux to inland waterways. Case C is led by Port of Aalborg in cooperation with Port of Vordingborg and will examine how existing small and medium sized ports can use automation to facilitate the transfer of cargo from trucks to sea. In all cases, automatic transshipment is an important factor.

The consortium consists of technology providers Kalmar and MacGregor, both part of Cargotec, to develop new solutions for cargo handling in ports and on vessels. Grieg Connect will provide corresponding solutions for digital integration and automation. The AEGIS consortium comprises 12 highly qualified partners from 4 countries: Norway, Denmark, Finland and Germany. The project is coordinated by SINTEF Ocean in Norway and its duration is three years, starting June 1st 2020.

AEGIS is a research and innovation project with a total funding of 7,5 M€ from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement N°859992. It will leverage a multidisciplinary team to integrate new innovations from the area of Connected and Automated Transport (CAT) to design the next generation sustainable and highly competitive waterborne transport system in Europe.

The project comprises: more diverse sizes of ships and more flexible ship systems, automated cargo handling, ports and short sea shuttles, standardized cargo units and new digital technologies.