News August 2021

DigitalSOW project successfully launched

The projects for automated and autonomous inland navigation in Berlin-Brandenburg continue to gain momentum. At the end of June 2021, the research project DigitalSOW - Digital Test Field for Automated and Autonomous Inland Navigation on the Spree-Oder Waterway (SOW) was launched. As part of the joint project, a digital test field is to be established and operated on the SOW to investigate, develop and test concepts, algorithms and technologies for automated and networked driving.

The focus is on the efficient integration of the waterway into a city logistics concept for the supply and waste disposal of the capital region. By making use of main and secondary waterways, small, low-emission and automated vessels should lead to greater utilisation of the waterway and thus relieve the burden on goods transport by road.

The project consortium is led by Alberding GmbH in Wildau. Cooperation partners are the Institute of Communication and Navigation of the German Aerospace Center, the Schiffbau-Versuchsanstalt Potsdam GmbH, the Department of Design and Operation of Maritime Systems of the Technical University of Berlin, the Institute of Automation Technology of the University of Rostock and the Association for European Inland Navigation and Waterways.

The project is supported by BEHALA - Berliner Hafen- und Lagerhausgesellschaft mbH, LUTRA GmbH - Port of Königs Wusterhausen, the shipping company Edline as well as the Brandenburg Economic Development Agency and the Brandenburg Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Planning.

The DigitalSOW project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) as part of the funding guideline for investments in the development of digital test sites on federal waterways. (Link)

The full press release on the project launch can be downloaded here (german).

For more information on DigitalSOW, visit www.digitalsow.de.