Dutch developments in autonomous shipping

Since the early 2010s, advancements in maritime autonomy have progressed at a steady pace. The Dutch maritime industry has, in collaboration with the Dutch government, sought to take a leading role in this, mainly by developing unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and associated regulatory frameworks. This collaborative effort has enabled the establishment of mechanisms to obtain experimentation permits, thereby facilitating trials with automated vessels closely attended by a mothership. Supported by these permits, shipowners have been able to validate the performance of their new assets and adapt and optimize their autonomous performance. The next steps towards commercial implementation are currently being taken by the Dutch government.

The diverse set of drivers behind the introduction of autonomous shipping includes – in the Dutch context – crew reduction, economic benefits, safety enhancement and greenhouse gas reduction. Exploring these in further detail, autonomous shipping reduces the crew required onboard by automating the dull, dirty and dangerous tasks. Furthermore, repositioning crew onshore improves work-life balance, which may attract more people towards the maritime industry (Figure 1). This addresses the current and anticipated shortages of available crew members. Regarding economic benefits, the deployment of smaller vessels with reduced energy consumption lowers overall costs, while a reduced crew size decreases labour costs. The integration of smart infrastructure, coupled with the absence of onboard crew, facilitates cost-effective just-in-time arrivals by reducing sailing speeds.

Autonomous shipping enhances safety as it minimizes the human errors that contribute to collisions, ship groundings, loss of life and environmental pollution, while the crew is removed from dangerous situations such as onboard firefighting. Finally, greenhouse gases are reduced as smaller vessels can be deployed with reduced energy consumption, which in turn makes the implementation of more expensive but sustainable energy sources feasible.

Despite the numerous compelling reasons for the rapid adoption of autonomous technologies in shipping, large-scale implementation remains unrealized. Besides the technical challenges, a significant barrier appears to be Dutch legislation, particularly the Inland Waterways Police Regulations (Binnenvaartpolitiereglement, BPR), which mandate the presence of an onboard skipper, preventing vessels from operating unmanned. While the drivers of unmanned shipping are applicable across the entire spectrum of shipping in the Netherlands, the current market primarily focuses on smaller USVs, which are mainly employed in survey, monitoring and inspection tasks. Consequently, recent legislative efforts concerning automated shipping have been directed towards legalizing the operations of unmanned vessels with lengths of up to 20 metres.

Dutch legislation

Dutch inland waterways shipping legislation can be divided into three main topics, each of which needs to be reviewed and adapted to enable the full integration of autonomous, unmanned operations. These concern technical requirements, the Shipping Traffic Act (Scheepvaartverkeerswet) and crewing regulations. Since the review and adaptation of these regulations are time consuming while the industry continues to develop at a rapid pace, some temporary solutions were first implemented. These date back to 2018, when the policy regulation for experiments involving highly automated navigation on national waterways was established. This regulation enables shipowners to conduct onboard experimental trials of their newly developed software and hardware for up to one year. From 2019 onwards, another policy regulation for experiments with highly automated navigation intended specifically for territorial waters was introduced with similar intentions. While use is made of these regulations, it is widely acknowledged that transitioning to full-scale commercial implementation is essential to achieve maximum benefit. In particular, USVs up to 20 metres in length have emerged as a growing market segment, frequently leading to exemption requests submitted to the Dutch government. However, no established mechanisms are yet in place to facilitate the market entry of these vessels.

In response to this growing USV market, the Dutch government initiated the formulation of technical requirements for USVs in late 2021 (Technisch kader varende drones), in close cooperation with the Dutch maritime industry. These requirements aim to ensure that USV operations achieve a minimum level of safety comparable to conventional operations, despite the absence of an onboard captain or skipper. In addition, obtaining exemptions to applicable traffic regulations should become more straightforward and faster. However, restrictions are still in place concerning the transport of passengers and/or dangerous cargo, for obvious reasons. Several boundary conditions were considered in the setup of this document:

1. The deployment of a USV must not introduce additional safety hazards to other users of the waterway or compromise the integrity of the waterway infrastructure.
2. The USV adheres to established regulations, with deviations permitted only when unavoidable.
3. The USV exhibits conventional maritime behaviour to the greatest extent practicable.
4. Additional requirements and prerequisites for USVs are imposed only when deemed necessary to achieve a safety level equivalent to that of conventional vessels.
5. No additional regulations are established solely for the preservation of the USV itself. However, existing regulations with this intent must be adhered to at all times.
6. The new regulations will be aligned, to the greatest extent feasible, with pre-existing national and international regulatory frameworks. This approach aims to ensure coherence, minimize discrepancies and facilitate integration with established standards and protocols.
7. The new regulations are predominantly goal-based, leaving it to the USV owner or designer to ensure compliance in a practical manner.

Based on these technical requirements (Figure 2), an advisory document was developed for the Dutch government outlining an assessment framework for future exemptions. It provides guidance for authorities to assess exemption requests within the BPR for USVs up to 20 metres in length. Alternatively, if a proposed solution does not fit within the framework’s boundaries, a risk assessment may be conducted to achieve a similar safety level. This assessment framework forms the basis for the upcoming legislation for the unmanned sailing of vessels up to 20 metres on waterways. This legislation is expected to come into force by early 2025. As a result, unmanned operations on Dutch inland waterways should become feasible for USVs on a full commercial basis. For larger inland vessels, both the technical requirements and the crewing regulations still need to be developed.

International developments

Even though autonomous or remote controlled vessels are hardly seen on Dutch waterways, Dutch legislation is ahead of other countries, despite the presence of such vessels on their waterways. For instance, Belgium allows experiments and pilot studies in relation to autonomous and remote controlled sailing. To perform these, a request form that includes a concept of operations, overview of deviations from applicable legislation, risk assessment and procedure of reduction of onboard crew must be submitted to and assessed by the authorities. While several inland shipowners are performing experiments based on these grounds, this procedure is only applicable on an experimental basis and no official legislation is in place.

A similar procedure is seen in Norway, where remote controlled ferries operate in Norwegian fjords. In addition, the Yara Birkeland (a coastal container feeder) has sailed since 2022 on a low crewed basis with the intention to sail unmanned by 2025. Norway, too, has not yet established formal legislation to enable the full commercial implementation of these operations.

The CCR (Central Commission for the Rhine) has also developed a procedure enabling experimental automated navigation projects on the waterways under its jurisdiction. The procedure can provide exemptions to existing regulations of the CCR regulations after investigation and approval of the provided risk assessment and corresponding mitigating measures.

No traffic regulation restrictions are in place to prohibit unmanned operations in Dutch territorial waters, in contrast to inland waterways. Prior to conducting these operations, permission must be obtained from the Dutch Coastguard and the USVs are escorted by a mothership in busy operational areas for technical and traffic-related reasons. This approach has already led to several successful USV operations in these waters.

In 2019, the IMO provided interim guidelines for autonomous ship trials in international waters. It also conducted a regulatory scoping exercise (RSE), which was finalized in mid-2021. The goal of this RSE was to identify the impact on existing regulations due to development of MASS (Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships). Based on the outcomes of the RSE, the goal is now to finalize and adopt a non-mandatory goal-based MASS code by mid-2025. By 2030, this code should be developed with amendments to SOLAS and adopted on a mandatory basis.

All these international developments have in common that the safety level for the vessel, other waterway users and the environment should be equivalent to that for conventional vessels. This must be proven by means of risk assessments and, where necessary, ample mitigating measures must be applied.

SMASH

As described above, the development of regulations for autonomous shipping in the Netherlands occurs through a collaborative effort between the Dutch government, industrial stakeholders and research institutes. This model of cooperation, referred to as the ‘golden triangle’, was recognized as a critical success factor as early as 2018. In response, the SMASH! initiative was established, aimed at bringing together the Dutch maritime sector to promote smart shipping and enhance the Netherlands’ international competitiveness. SMASH! developed a roadmap that serves as the foundation for future collaboration on specific use cases, such as inland cargo ships, USVs and deep-sea vessels. To date, two working groups have been initiated within the SMASH! community, uniting stakeholders from the corresponding sectors to address challenges specific to their domains: inland cargo ships and USVs.

The USV work group (see Figure 3), which was established in late 2023, currently comprises over 30 stakeholders, including shipowners, classification societies, suppliers and research institutes. The work group’s objectives are to accelerate and facilitate the implementation of Dutch USVs, establish a single point of contact for advocacy on behalf of USV stakeholders and develop the SMASH! USV roadmap, based on the prioritization set by the work group.

One of the group’s initial tasks was to provide feedback on the previously mentioned assessment framework for technical requirements of USVs. This feedback has been submitted to the Dutch government and is currently under review. At present, the work group’s primary focus is the development of a project proposal aimed at the validation and standardization of autonomous systems. After all, it is widely acknowledged that a standardized, industry-accepted methodology is essential to ensure a clear, uniform and transparent validation approach for safe autonomous operations. The project proposal is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

Conclusion

The Dutch government, in collaboration with various industrial entities, is making significant progress towards the full commercial implementation of autonomous operations on Dutch inland waterways. The cooperation between industry, research institutes and the government has proven to be highly effective. Even though substantial efforts are still required regarding the regulatory framework for larger vessels and current legislation prohibits the carriage of passengers and hazardous cargo in autonomous operations, legislation for commercially operating USVs up to 20 metres in length is anticipated to be in place by 2025. From that moment onwards, it will be essential to start monitoring autonomous operations closely and provide operational feedback to refine and adapt legislation accordingly.