IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v335y2025ics0360544225035480.html

A voyage planning framework for energy performance analysis of autonomous inland waterway vessels

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Chengqian
  • Zhang, Chi
  • Thies, Fabian
  • Mao, Wengang
  • Ringsberg, Jonas W.

Abstract

Autonomous inland waterway vessels (AIWVs) have emerged as a promising solution towards sustainable and intelligent waterborne transport. However, the unique constraints of inland waterways—such as limited manoeuvring space, shallow depth profiles, and water currents pose significant challenges for vessels’ navigational safety and energy efficiency. This study aims to develop and validate a simulation framework for energy-efficient autonomous vessel operations in complex inland waterways. To enhance shipping automation with optimal energy usage, this study presents the development of a novel, holistic voyage planning framework (VPF) specifically designed for inland waterway vessels to support both quantitative energy performance assessment and operational analysis. The operations of AIWVs are systematically examined, including ship design (energy performance modelling), manoeuvring modelling, control design, and energy prediction under various inland waterway scenarios. To capture the impact of riverbed topography on ship manoeuvrability and propulsion energy demand in meandering waterways, a new formula is proposed to model river hydraulics, incorporating cross-sectional shifts, current fields, deposition, and erosion effects. Several case studies are conducted under different operational modes to demonstrate the capability of the VPF to enable robust path-following control, dynamic energy prediction, and fuel consumption optimisation. The simulation results indicate that up to 5.7 % fuel savings can be achieved during near-bank operations in shallow water through operational speed optimisation. The proposed VPF can help to improve vessel operational efficiency and reduce energy consumption in confined inland waterways. Moreover, the findings can serve as a digital testbed for evaluating new vessel designs and retrofitting strategies aimed at enhancing automation and energy performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Chengqian & Zhang, Chi & Thies, Fabian & Mao, Wengang & Ringsberg, Jonas W., 2025. "A voyage planning framework for energy performance analysis of autonomous inland waterway vessels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:335:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225035480
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.137906
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225035480
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.137906?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fan, Ailong & Wang, Junteng & He, Yapeng & Perčić, Maja & Vladimir, Nikola & Yang, Liu, 2021. "Decarbonising inland ship power system: Alternative solution and assessment method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    2. Liu, Shujun & Wang, Yao & Liu, Qi & Panchal, Satyam & Zhao, Jiapei & Fowler, Michael & Fraser, Roydon & Yuan, Jinliang, 2024. "Thermal equalization design for the battery energy storage system (BESS) of a fully electric ship," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    3. Fan, Ailong & Xiong, Yuqi & Yang, Liu & Zhang, Haiying & He, Yapeng, 2023. "Carbon footprint model and low–carbon pathway of inland shipping based on micro–macro analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).
    4. Guarnieri, Massimo & Bovo, Angelo & Zatta, Nicolò & Trovò, Andrea, 2024. "Design, construction and operation of a special electric vessel for water-city utilities service," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    5. Wang, Kai & Li, Zhongwei & Zhang, Rui & Ma, Ranqi & Huang, Lianzhong & Wang, Zhuang & Jiang, Xiaoli, 2025. "Computational fluid dynamics-based ship energy-saving technologies: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Hanyou & Fan, Ailong & Li, Yongping & Bucknall, Richard & Chen, Li, 2024. "Hierarchical distributed MPC method for hybrid energy management: A case study of ship with variable operating conditions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PA).
    2. Li, De-Chang & Yang, Hua-Long, 2024. "Voyage charterparty arrangement for river tramp shipping: Green and traditional vessels comparison," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 75-92.
    3. Charilaos Christodoulou Raftis & Thierry Vanelslander & Edwin van Hassel, 2023. "A Global Analysis of Emissions, Decarbonization, and Alternative Fuels in Inland Navigation—A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-20, September.
    4. Lovro Frković & Boris Ćosić & Tomislav Pukšec & Nikola Vladimir, 2023. "Modelling of the Standalone Onshore Charging Station: The Nexus between Offshore Renewables and All-Electric Ships," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-16, August.
    5. Liu, Jiahao & Tao, Liyanyu & Yang, Qinyuan & Wang, Jinhui, 2026. "Recent advances in immersion cooling for thermal management of lithium-ion batteries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 226(PE).
    6. Bening Mayanti & Magnus Hellström & Anthony Katumwesigye, 2025. "Assessing the decarbonization roadmap of a RoPax ferry," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 27(1), pages 123-146, March.
    7. Desantes, J.M. & Novella, R. & Pla, B. & Lopez-Juarez, M., 2021. "Impact of fuel cell range extender powertrain design on greenhouse gases and NOX emissions in automotive applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    8. Zhang, Xinyue & Song, Enzhe & Yan, Yongan & Han, Zhongyi & Zhao, Xuchun, 2025. "Emission-constrained LPV-MPC control for marine RCCI engines based on hybrid grey-box modeling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    9. Konur, Olgun & Yuksel, Onur & Aykut Korkmaz, S. & Ozgur Colpan, C. & Saatcioglu, Omur Y. & Koseoglu, Burak, 2023. "Operation-dependent exergetic sustainability assessment and environmental analysis on a large tanker ship utilizing Organic Rankine cycle system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(PA).
    10. Wang, Kai & Li, Zhongwei & Liu, Xing & Hu, Zhiqiang & Huang, Lianzhong & Song, Qiushi & Liang, Hongzhi & Jiang, Xiaoli, 2025. "Wind-assisted propulsion system for shipping decarbonization: Technologies, applications and challenges," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    11. Liu, Xinghua & Xue, Xinying & Ma, Wentao & Hasanien, Hany M. & Wei, Zhongbao & Duan, Jiandong, 2025. "A novel two-level equalization topology with AMPC-IVY-FLC algorithm for enhanced lithium-ion battery pack balancing," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    12. Cui, Qi & Li, Xiaofan & Bai, Xiaoxin & He, Ling & Liu, Mengting, 2025. "How the synergy effect between renewable electricity deployment and terminal electrification mitigates transportation sectors' carbon emissions in China?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 135-147.
    13. Perčić, Maja & Vladimir, Nikola & Fan, Ailong, 2021. "Techno-economic assessment of alternative marine fuels for inland shipping in Croatia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    14. Zhang, Rui & Huang, Lianzhong & Chen, Jijun & Peng, Guisheng & Ma, Ranqi & Cao, Jianlin & Wang, Cong & Wu, Jianyi & Li, Xiaowu, 2025. "A novel energy conservation method for wind-assisted propulsion ships based on sails thrust optimization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    15. Lan, Tian & Huang, Lianzhong & Ruan, Zhang & Cao, Jianlin & Ma, Ranqi & Wu, Jianyi & Li, Xiaowu & Chen, Li & Wang, Kai, 2025. "Multilevel parallel integration framework for enhancing energy efficiency of wing-assisted ships based on deep learning and intelligent algorithms: Towards a smarter and greener shipping," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 394(C).
    16. Guo, Xiaoyan & He, Junliang & Xu, Gangyan & Yu, Hang, 2025. "Carbon reduction and peaking pathway evaluation of container intermodal network: From the perspective of policy sentiment," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    17. Konduru, Sudharshan & Naveen, C., 2024. "Intelligent hybrid deep learning models for enhanced shipboard solar irradiance prediction and charging station," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    18. Fan, Ailong & Wang, Yifu & Yang, Liu & Yang, Zhiyong & Hu, Zhihui, 2025. "A novel grey box model for ship fuel consumption prediction adapted to complex navigating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    19. Barone, Giovanni & Buonomano, Annamaria & Del Papa, Gianluca & Giuzio, Giovanni Francesco & Maka, Robert & Palombo, Adolfo & Russo, Giuseppe, 2025. "Steering shipping towards energy sustainability: alternative fuels in decarbonization policies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    20. Yin, He & Wu, Jinghu & Zhang, Gang & Lan, Hai & Hong, Ying-Yi & Li, Dan, 2024. "Variable time-scale power scheduling of a River-Sea going renewable energy ship considering coupling variations in all-electric propulsion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 374(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:335:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225035480. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.