AVATAR- Autonomous vessels, cost-effective transhipment, waste return
Welcome to AVATAR's website. AVATAR is a project co-funded by the North Sea Region Programme 2014 - 2020.
The massive under-exploitation of inland waterways (IWW) in the North Sea Region, especially in and around urban environments, provides opportunities for technological innovations. The AVATAR project aims to deploy zero-emission automated vessels that can do hourly traffic between the Urban Consolidation Centers outside the city and inner city hubs, focusing on the distribution of palletized goods and waste return.
The AVATAR project aims to tackle challenges of city freight distribution by developing, testing and assessing adequate technologies and business models for urban autonomous zero-emission IWT. Through this, the project unlocks the economic potential of urban vessels and corresponding waterways, increases available solutions for full-cycle automation and sets up a sustainable supply chain model for urban goods distribution and waste return.
Project focus:
- Development of prototypes of automated to autonomous ship units
- Development of remote monitoring and control concepts
- Development of use cases and business cases for use in an urban context
- Analysis of the political and legal framework for the deployment of autonomous ship units in the participating regions
- Performance of pilot tests
Project period: May 2020 - June 2023
Project budget: Total EUR 2,83 million, funding (ERDF): EUR 1,42 million
Latest Project News
AVATAR @ Transport Logistic Exhibitions 2023 (update)
23 March 2023Meet AVATAR at Transport Logistic Exhibitions 2023!
Read moreAVATAR DEMONSTRATION EVENT – Maverick KU LEUVEN
17 March 2023The KU Leuven Intelligent Mobile Platforms research group will demonstrate the potential of zero-emission automated urban vessels on small inland wate…
Read moreAVATAR @ German Society of Transport Sciences
13 March 2023LIHH presented innovative last mile distribution concepts on the waterways.
Read moreAVATAR - Project partners contributed to a Nature article on autonomous ships
02 March 2023Research gaps in autonomous sailing identified.
Read moreAVATAR @ AUTOBARGE EVENT
27 February 2023AVATAR Interreg North Sea Region project partner Thomas Brauner (Logistics Initiative Hamburg) will participate at the MSCA ETN AUTOBarge event on Eur…
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