Patrick Hertoge, navigator for the Belgian startup Seafar, monitors the remote-controlled navigation of boats on waterways on screens from the port of Duisburg, March 19, 2024 in Germany (AFP/Léa PERNELLE)
In the port of Duisburg, Germany, Steffen Bauer is preparing its fleet of boats for the next revolution in river transport: ships without a captain at the helm, piloted from land to make the profession more attractive.
“This is the only solution for the survival of the sector,” assures Mr. Bauer, boss of HGK Shipping which presents itself as the leading inland navigation company in Europe.
His company based in Duisburg, a hub for river transport in north-west Germany, has entered into a partnership with the Belgian start-up Seafar, a leader in the emerging field of autonomous navigation.
“If we do nothing, we will lose 30% of our workforce by 2030,” explains Steffen Bauer who operates 350 boats. The average age of its captains is 55 and the company struggles to attract new recruits.
The solution: remote control boats from a control center, a less grueling office job that could attract young people.
Created in 2019, Seafar already sails four remote-controlled boats without any crew in Belgium, a country where the legislation on autonomous navigation is the most advanced.
The start-up has just opened an office in Germany, a country where 30% of European river freight transits, a mode of transport highly sought after by companies that need to reduce their carbon footprint.
– Sensors and cameras –
“There is clearly a market for remote-controlled navigation. It will take more time to obtain regulations than to make it work,” assures Janis Bargsten, sales manager at Seafar.
Patrick Hertoge, navigator for the Belgian startup Seafar, monitors the remote-controlled navigation of boats on waterways on screens from the port of Duisburg, March 19, 2024 in Germany (AFP/Léa PERNELLE)
In Duisburg, HGK Shipping and Seafar have already set up an operational center for remote navigation, which is currently in the testing phase. The companies are waiting this month for authorization from German authorities to launch the first remote-controlled boats on certain sections.
Initially, it is planned to keep two captains on board as a precaution. Then to move on to the next stage within a year, with a reduced crew, as is already the case in Belgium.
The final objective, in the more distant future, is to do without a captain while maintaining a crew on board, concludes Mr. Bauer.
Seafar goes even further, and is already working on semi-autonomous navigation as well as maritime trials in the Baltic Sea.
The technology is reminiscent of that developed by automobile manufacturers for autonomous cars: sensors, cameras, lidars, radars and alarms transmit information via 4 and 5G antennas to the captain in the control center and “recreate the state situation alert, as if he were on board,” explains Mr. Bargsten.
“It’s just like on board a boat,” assures AFP Captain Patrick Hertoge met in Duisburg, where he monitors on ten screens an autonomous “pilot” barge on its way to Hamburg, loaded with steel containers. .
– Living on land –
After a 30-year career as captain of his own barge, this 58-year-old Belgian was recruited by Seafar to participate in the trials.
Patrick Hertoge, navigator for the Belgian startup Seafar, monitors the remote-controlled navigation of boats on waterways on screens from the port of Duisburg, March 19, 2024 in Germany (AFP/Léa PERNELLE)
Son of parents who were themselves boat captains, he sold his boat three years ago and explains that he is living on land for the first time in his life.
“On a boat, we are on standby 24 hours a day, whereas here after my eight hours, I can go home,” he says.
Seafar would like to extend the trials throughout Europe and is holding discussions at an “advanced” stage with Voies Navigables de France (VNF) to anticipate requests for authorization in France, assures Mr. Bargsten.
This technology represents “a significant relief for the industry”, recognizes a spokesperson for the German Waterways Federation, but it cannot solve “all the problems”, he nuances.
The federation calls for caution, highlighting “new questions of liability” which must be “legally clarified”.
In the event of a technical problem, Seafar would be responsible, but if the error came from the captain, the responsibility would fall on the company, explains Mr. Bargsten, recalling that these professionals are qualified and experienced: “it is not a question of hiring video game players.
The job is the same, confirms Patrick Hertoge, who only misses the wind and sometimes the view out the window when he wakes up, which is now “always the same”.
© 2024 AFP
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