Impact of a navigation aid on unmanned sailing in inland waterways: Design and evaluation challenges

The Hull to Hull project is initiated within the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union to assist mariners and support safe navigation while increasing the level of autonomy. As it is important to validate the resilience and integrity of such systems, the authors aim to measure the impact of this navigation aid in Inland Waterways. This task is not straightforward as there is no clear framework for applicable performance metrics. Additionally, inland vessels require more accurate positioning and higher situational awareness as they usually operate in constrained waters and the proximity of other vessels. Furthermore, operating an unmanned vessel produces additional challenges as there is no crew on board. Therefore, this paper discusses the design challenges in implementing this navigation aid to an unmanned vessel in inland waterways and also proposes an approach for evaluating its impact with domain-specific performance metrics and criteria. The outcome of this study sets the foundation for future validation.