In Rotterdam, the port authority’s fleet is to be modernized. In the course of this, the plan is to use autonomous units. Tests are already underway in the Maasvlakte 2 area.
Since a change in the legal situation in April, ships in Rotterdam can also sail unmanned in exceptional cases. This is exactly what has now happened in the Prinses Margriethaven. The Maasvlakte 2 area in Rotterdam was the scene of a test with an unmanned sounding vessel. It was a first: for the first time, an unmanned vessel was allowed to sail outside the boundaries of a closed test environment in Dutch waters.
The Inland Waterways Police Regulations (BPR) normally stipulate that a vessel must always have a crew. Since a change in the law in April, it has been possible to obtain an exemption under certain conditions. Harbour master René de Vries granted this exemption for this trial. This allowed the V3000 sounding vessel from Demcon Unmanned Systems to sail autonomously in the Prinses Margriethaven, accompanied by a conventional (manned) sounding vessel from the Port of Rotterdam Authority.
A sounding vessel measures the depth of harbors, rivers, canals and locks. “The use of an unmanned sounding vessel offers the Port of Rotterdam Authority opportunities to take soundings even more efficiently in the future, for example for depth measurements in larger measuring areas such as Maasvlakte 2,” according to a statement from the Dutch authorities.
Part of the fleet renewal
The test took place as part of the port authority’s fleet renewal. Over the next twelve years, its ships will reach the end of their technical service life. The Port of Rotterdam Authority is using this opportunity to renew the entire fleet, make it more sustainable and simplify maintenance processes.
Harbour Master René de Vries explains: “When renewing our fleet, we are looking at every conceivable option that can help us to perform our tasks in the port of Rotterdam even better. Unmanned vessels could be an addition to our current vessels. Until now, there have been no autonomous vessels on the Dutch waterways. It’s great that we can now make room for such initiatives with an exemption from the BPR.”
Willem Snoek, Asset Manager at the Port of Rotterdam Authority, adds: “The integration of unmanned survey vessels into our hydrographic process can offer advantages in large port areas – which, due to their size, require a lot of time for surveying. We investigated this in this trial. We also analyzed what impact this would have on the crewing of conventional survey vessels and how we could use unmanned survey vessels in the future.”
Accurate measurements
The Port of Rotterdam Authority and Demcon Unmanned Systems intend to evaluate the knowledge gained during the trial in the near future. The V3000 is a three-meter-long sounding vessel. Automation and advanced safety systems ensure that the ship can sail autonomously and safely.
Thanks to its compact size and maneuverability, it can carry out depth measurements and inspections in places that are difficult for conventional, manned sounding vessels to reach. Equipped with advanced sensors, it enables accurate depth measurements while minimizing noise and vibration interference – an advantage for sensitive measurement systems. Demcon Unmanned Systems is a Dutch maritime technology company specializing in the design, development and construction of autonomous, unmanned watercraft. The company is based in the port of Scheveningen.
