Evaluating the economic performance of a decentralized waterborne container transportation service using autonomous inland vessels

Autonomous inland waterway transportation appears as a promising alternative to traditional operational concepts as it promises considerable cost reduction and efficiency gains. However, there are few examples of actual case studies and application examples using autonomous inland vessels and related performance results available. Hence, the evaluation of their economic benefit has not been proven yet. Parallel to the rich collection of technical development works around the automation of navigation, the economic evaluation is an important research string in order to help the innovation diffuse in the market. By examining real-world case studies and proving the economic benefit of using autonomous vessels, the realization of promising logistics concepts can be supported. With the help of discrete-event simulation, a case study of a container feeder shuttle service in the West German canal network is examined. By comparing inland vessels that run conventional operational modes with ones remotely monitored and fully autonomous, respectively, the savings potential is identified. The results can be used for the finetuning of the design of the logistics service in order to achieve the economically optimal configuration. Furthermore, it can be used as a blueprint for similar applications elsewhere.