Jcean Engineering 343 (2026) 123388 
Contents lists available at SeienceDirect 
JCEAN 
ANGINBSHING 
Ocean Engineering 
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/oceaneng 
An 
Research paper 
Automatic, cooperative maneuvering of watercraft within ports 
Johannes R. Marx ®2, Agnes U. Schubert ® **, Nick Eisenblätter®*, Robert Damerius ©:, 
Michael Gluch®@*, Capt. Michael Quandt ©“, Torsten Jeinsch® * 
University of Rostock, Institut of Automation, Richard-Wagner-Str. 31, Rostock, 18119, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany 
’ Innovative Ship Simulation and Maritime Systems GmbH, Sonnenblumenweg 107, Rostock, 18119, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany 
“Survey, Wreck Search and Research Vessel DENEB, Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency Germany, Neptunallee 5, Rostock, 18057, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 
Germany 
„nick fo 
uDdlater 
ARTICLE INFO 
ABSTRACT 
Zeywords: 
Ship autonomy and control 
Optimal planning 
automatic maneuvering 
Collision avoidance 
Autonomous surface vessels 
This paper presents the latest results of real-world tests for automatic, cooperative maneuvering of three wa- 
‚ercraft within the confined waters of a port, the research vessel DENEB as welll as the smaller vehicles BELA 
and the unmanned surface vehicle MESSIN. The new developments follow the method of successive maneuver 
automation based on assistance systems for the nautical personnel. The contribution describes the rule compliant 
naneuver design, the nautical safety aspects as well as the setups for the simulation and tests in the real port. An 
adaptive model predictive controller is used for each of the vehicles. For this ship-specific controller approach, 
‘he basic motion models, the controller design, the various control modes and the allocation solutions are ex- 
lained more in detail. The original manoeuvre paths that would lead to a collision between the vehicles are 
:‚esolved collision-free with the help of trajectory optimization.The successive optimization for collision avoid- 
ance is treated as a nonlinear optimal control problem which is presented with its structure and the optimization 
criteria. Finally, an outlook on future work is given on how test scenarios can be expanded step by step in order 
to map holistic use cases in maritime practice. 
1. Introduction 
ıvoidance maneuvers in port. In order to increase efficiency, three vehi- 
ıles will be able to avoid each other cooperatively. For central trajectory 
optimization, the basic state data of each vehicle is therefore provided 
via a virtual private (VPN) network during the entire maneuver. 
The three vehicles involved are the 52m long survey and research 
vessel DENEB, with owner German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic 
Agency (BSH Germany), the 7.5m long catamaran Bernhard Lampe 
BELA) and the 3.5m long unmanned surface vehicle (USV) MESSIN, 
»oth from University of Rostock. The vehicles are presented in Fig. 1. 
rhe contribution is organized as follows. The introduction contin- 
ı1es with an overview of related work in higher ship automation from 
öther projects. In addition, the authors will present their own prelimi- 
ıary work in recent years to realize such a complex scenario in a real 
port, within safety-critical structures and with three real ships. Section 2 
zontains the test design with information on the considered regulations, 
‘he vehicles used, their equipment and the characteristics of the au- 
:omation systems applied. The safety aspects are designed from a nau- 
:ical perspective and define the framework and abort conditions for the 
automatic maneuvers. Sections 3 and 4 are dedicated to the controller 
The global shipping industry is facing enormous challenges due to a 
steadily growing volume of global trade and the associated larger ships 
and fleets, as well as a simultaneous shortage of skilled workers and 
junior seafarers. Many companies are therefore focusing on the use of 
ıew technologies for assisted and automated ship operations, with the 
ıltimate aim of autonomous shipping. Automation can serve to increase 
safety and efficiency and reduce environmental impact, for example by 
shifting traffic from the road to the water. It is obvious that the entire 
shipping industry cannot be converted to autonomous ships in a short 
seriod of time. Even the conversion for an individual ship, both for new- 
uildings and for an existing ship, will take place gradually, so that an 
ıncreasingly broad spectrum of tasks and areas of use can be covered. 
The paper focuses on the automation of shipping in narrow waters 
with limited maneuvering space, at low speeds and the higher risk of col- 
ıisions, as this is where the largest gap for highly automated pier-to-pier 
ship operations has been identified. Following the development of auto- 
mated berthing maneuvers, the next step will be to automate caollision 
Corresponsing author. 
E-mail addresses: johannes.marx@uni-rostock.de (J.R. Marx), agnes.schubert@uni-rostock.de (A.U. Schubert), nick.eisenblaetter@uni-rostock.de (N. 
Eisenblätter), robert.damerius@uni-rostock.de (R. Damerius), mgluch@issims-gmbh.com (M. Gluch), master.deneb@bsh.de (Capt.M. Quandt), 
‚orsten.jeinsch@uni-rostock.de (T. Jeinsch). 
attps://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2025.123388 
Received 30 May 2025; Received in revised form 26 September 2025; Accepted 30 October 2025 
Available online 10 November 2025 
0029-8018/© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http: //creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).