Can autonomous ships help short-sea shipping become more cost-efficient?

Abstract

There is a strong political focus on moving cargo transportation from trucks to ships to reduce environmental emissions and road congestion. We study how the introduction of a future generation of autonomous ships can be utilized in maritime transportation systems to become more cost-efficient, and as such contribute in the shift from land to sea. Specifically, we consider a case study for a Norwegian shipping company and solve a combined liner shipping network design and fleet size and mix problem to analyze the economic impact of introducing autonomous ships. The computational study carried out on a problem with 13 ports shows that a cost reduction up to 13% could be obtained compared to a similar network with conventional ships.