Autonomous inland waterway vessel operations require a coordinated set of technical building blocks — mission planning, perception, remote control, and operator tooling. AUTOFLEX Deliverable D4.5, the IWW Autonomy Package, documents exactly this set of components developed within Work Package 4, led by Maritime Robotics (Norway). The deliverable covers the Mission Exchange Model, onboard sensor systems, the demonstration vessel MS Letitia, the Remote Operation Centre, and the RTZ Route Planner Tool developed by Fraunhofer CML.
Mission Exchange Model
The Mission Exchange Model (MEZ) defines the digital package exchanged between the Remote Operation Centre (ROC) and the Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) at the start of each voyage. It carries the planned route, schedule, bridge and lock passage parameters, mooring data, cargo information, and infrastructure constraints. The MEZ is built on the IEC 61174 S-421 route exchange standard and extends it with inland waterway-specific fields not covered by the maritime baseline.
A proof-of-concept of the MEZ was completed on 13 June 2025 using the Maritime Robotics OtterX unmanned surface vehicle on the Trondheim canal. The scenario demonstrated end-to-end mission upload from a ROC, autonomous execution by the vehicle, and status reporting back to the operator. A paper presenting the MEZ was published at ICMASS 2025 in Hamburg and presented to the IEC TC80/WG17 standardisation committee in London in April 2026. The conference paper is available at IOP Conference Series.
Proof-of-Concept Demonstration with OtterX
The OtterX demonstration on the Trondheim canal validated the core MEZ workflow under real operating conditions. The ROC prepared and uploaded the mission package to the vehicle, which executed the route autonomously and returned status updates and intervention requests through the defined interface. The demonstration confirmed that the MEZ data model is sufficient to drive autonomous execution and that the ROC-ANS communication protocol functions as designed.
Sensors for Situational Awareness
Sensor data for training the AUTOFLEX perception pipeline was collected aboard MS Sorrento (MMSI: 205289590), a DFDS-operated inland waterway barge on the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal between November 2024 and January 2026. The multi-sensor perception pipeline fuses camera, radar, AIS, and LiDAR data to detect and track other vessels and waterway infrastructure.
The onboard equipment installed on MS Letitia for the AUTOFLEX demonstration includes SeaControl (Maritime Robotics autonomous navigation system), SeaSightX panoramic camera modules on the foremast and four positions on the vessel, SeaSight CL compact 360-degree camera with integrated LiDAR on the aft mast for close-range awareness, Furuno Radar DRS4D-NXT, and the Maritime Robotics Vehicle Control Station (VCS) software for remote monitoring and control.
Autonomous Inland Waterway Vessel: MS Letitia
MS Letitia is the AUTOFLEX demonstration vessel. She is 135 metres in length with a beam of 17.10 metres, operates under German flag, and is managed by HTS Group and MTS Duisburg. The hull was built by Rensen-Driessen and outfitted by Olthof Marine Group starting November 2024. Propulsion is provided by two 1,600 kW Oswald electric motors, supported by a 1.2 MW hydrogen fuel cell, a 1,030 kWh battery bank, and four diesel backup generators. The vessel trades between Rotterdam and Antwerp to Duisburg and is equipped with an Argonics argoTrackPilot autopilot system as the baseline navigation platform.
Remote Operation Centre and Vehicle Control Station
The Remote Operation Centre handles mission scheduling, operator supervision, intervention, and fallback control. Operators use the Maritime Robotics Vehicle Control Station software to monitor vessel status, receive autonomous system requests, and intervene when required. The ROC-ANS interface is defined by the MEZ and the status reporting protocol, keeping the human operator in the loop at all times while enabling uncrewed execution of approved missions.
RTZ Route Planner Tool
Fraunhofer CML developed the RTZ Route Planner Tool to support mission preparation for the AUTOFLEX demonstration. The tool is built in Python with a PyQt5 interface and uses the Leaflet map library to display planned routes. It outputs route files in the IEC 61174 RTZ schema extended with MEZ-specific fields and was validated against the Maritime Robotics VCS using a test route on the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal.
Outlook
The IWW Autonomy Package establishes the technical foundation for the full AUTOFLEX demonstration on MS Letitia. The MEZ is ready for integration into the vessel’s onboard systems, the sensor suite is installed and collecting operational data, and the RTZ Route Planner Tool is available for mission preparation. Upcoming work will focus on end-to-end demonstration of autonomous mission execution under the CCNR autonomy level 3 framework and on advancing MEZ standardisation through IEC TC80/WG17.
Partner Contributions
This deliverable was led by Maritime Robotics (MR) with contributions from across the AUTOFLEX consortium:
MR — Lead author: Mission Exchange Model, OtterX demonstration, SeaControl and SeaSightX sensor package, Vehicle Control Station (Øyvind Pedersen)
Fraunhofer CML — RTZ Route Planner Tool development and validation
HTS Group / MTS Duisburg — MS Letitia vessel management and outfitting coordination
DFDS — MS Sorrento sensor data collection, Ghent-Terneuzen Canal
