IEEE Electrification Magazine - December 2019 - 45

pollution. A large percentage of the world's population
lives in urban areas located near the sea or along rivers
with many available water channels, such as canals and
fjords. Reviving urban water transport systems and making them an integral part of a city's multimodal transportation system can take away congestion from roads in
these urban areas. The autonomous operation of passenger ferries seems to be a promising solution, especially
with advancements in technologies that enable increased
levels of autonomy and emission-free energy systems.
Thus, zero-emission autonomous passenger ferries could
ease the problem of congestion and pollution in the
urban areas while reviving the water transportation
systems. Besides the environmental advantages, the
autonomous ships offer other benefits to the shipping
industry: reduction of operational costs by up to 30% by
reducing the need for crews; increase in safety and reliability especially at night and in bad weather, when
visibility is poor; optimal usage of fuel; and expanded
opportunities to carry cargo by water. However, there are
several challenges that must be addressed to sustainable
transportation solutions by autonomous ferries. Some of
the challenges include ensuring ease of access for passengers, situational awareness, sensor fusion, interaction
with manned ferries for collision avoidance, and optimal
operation of emission- and maintenance-free energy
systems. The advanced control strategies for energy
management can be used to achieve the optimal operation of shipboard power and propulsion systems for the
real-time sailing profile.
Norway has been at the forefront of developing and
adopting technologies for sustainable and intelligent
maritime transportation. This article presented several research projects and community initiatives. Some
of these projects and activities focus on developing
either autonomous or emission-free energy systems.
However, the time has come to combine these in an
autonomous passenger ferry. NTNU Autoferry is established as a pilot project aimed at expanding the
research and development in the field and building
a zero-emission and autonomous passenger ferry
designed for urban transport. This has the potential to
create new markets while addressing several pressing
challenges of society. The global commercial freight
market alone is worth US$208 billion per year. The
maritime transportation sector with major crew costs
presents an unexplored market for autonomous shipping technologies.

For Further Reading
"Autoferry." Accessed on: Feb. 7, 2019. [Online]. Available:
https://www.ntnu.edu/autoferry
"Norwegian Centres of Expertise Maritime CleanTech."
Accessed on: Feb. 21, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://
maritimecleantech.no/
N. P. Reddy, D. Pasdeloup, M. K. Zadeh, and R. Skjetne, "An
intelligent power and energy management system for fuel

cell/battery hybrid electric vehicle using reinforcement learning," in Proc. 2019 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conf. and
Expo (ITEC), pp. 1-6.
C. A. Thieme, I. B. Utne, and S. Haugen, "Assessing ship
risk model applicability to marine autonomous surface
ships," Ocean Eng., vol. 165, pp. 140-145, Oct. 2018.
M. A. Ramos, C. A. Thieme, I. B. Utne, and A. Mosleh,
"Autonomous systems safety: State of the art and challenges,"
in Proc. 1st Int. Workshop Autonomous Systems Safety, Trondheim,
Norway, Mar. 11-13, 2019, pp. 18-32.
M. K. Zadeh, Stability Analysis Methods and Tools for Power
Electronics- Based DC Distribution Systems, Applicable to on-Board
Electric Power Systems and Smart Microgrids. Trondheim, Norway: NTNU, 2016.
Z. Jin, G. Sulligoi, R. Cuzner, L. Meng, J. C. Vasquez, and J. M.
Guerrero, "Next-generation shipboard DC power system:
Introduction smart grid and DC microgrid technologies into
maritime electrical networks," IEEE Electrific. Mag., vol. 4, no. 2,
pp. 45-57, June 2016.
D. Park and M. K. Zadeh, "Dynamic modeling and stability
analysis of onboard DC power system for hybrid electric
ships," in Proc. 2019 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conf. and
Expo (ITEC), pp. 1-6.
K. Lai and M. S. Illindala, "A distributed energy management strategy for resilient shipboard power system," Appl.
Energy, vol. 228, pp. 821-832, Oct. 2018.
M. K. Zadeh, L. Saublet, R. Gavagsaz-Ghoachani, B.
Nahid-Mobarakeh, S. Pierfederici, and M. Molinas, "Energy
management and stabilization of a hybrid DC microgrid
for transportation applications," in Proc. 2016 IEEE Applied
Power Electronics Conf. and Exposition (APEC), pp. 3397-3402.

Biographies
Namireddy Praveen Reddy (namireddy.p.reddy@ntnu.no)
is with the Department of Marine Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Mehdi Karbalaye Zadeh (mehdi.zadeh@ntnu.no) is
with the Department of Marine Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Christoph Alexander Thieme (christoph.thieme@ntnu.no)
is with the Department of Marine Technology, Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Roger Skjetne (roger.skjetne@ntnu.no) is with the Centre
for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems, Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Asgeir Johan Sørensen (asgeir.sorensen@ntnu.no) is
with the Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and
Systems, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Trondheim, Norway.
Svein Aanond Aanondsen (svein.aa.aanondsen@ntnu.no)
is with the Department of Marine Technology, Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Morten Breivik (morten.breivik@ntnu.no) is with the
Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Egil Eide (egil.eide@ntnu.no) is with the Department of
Electronic Systems, Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

IEEE Elec trific ation Magazine / D EC EM BE R 2 0 1 9

https://www.ntnu.edu/autoferry http://www.maritimecleantech.no/ http://www.maritimecleantech.no/

IEEE Electrification Magazine - December 2019

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