Inland waterway autonomous transportation: System architecture, infrastructure and key technologies

With the rapid development of intelligent inland waterway shipping and autonomous vessel, the development of inland waterway autonomous transportation has become a hot topic in the shipbuilding industry and the maritime field. This study comprehensively discusses the development trends and technical challenges of inland waterway autonomous transportation from three aspects: system architecture, advanced infrastructure, and key technologies. Firstly, based on the Cyber-Physical-System theory, we propose a hierarchical architecture for the inland waterway autonomous transportation system. Second, based on the full-life-cycle management and control theory, we put forward the autonomous operation process for the planning, design, construction, operation, management, and control of the inland waterway autonomous transportation system. Then, we discuss the advanced infrastructure of the inland waterway autonomous transportation system, including perception, communication, computing, navigation scene maps, high-precision positioning, and so on. Finally, we summarize the key technologies and development challenges for implementing the inland waterway autonomous transportation system, such as autonomous vessels, the Internet of Ships, cloud-edge collaborative computing, artificial intelligence, communication, and channel geographic information systems. This research provides a potential framework and technical solutions for the inland waterway autonomous transportation system, contributing to the rapid development of the inland waterway shipping economy.