The ports of Bremen are facing a variety of challenges. In order to remain competitive, port processes must be digitalized and automated. Bremen's port industry has already been working together with scientists from Bremen for many years. Another component is now to be a Smartport Living Lab, with which five research institutes from Bremen and Bremerhaven want to jointly develop innovative solutions for the digitalized port of the future. The state of Bremen has approved funding of 2.8 million euros for the necessary infrastructure.
The scientists want to use this money to procure systems such as drones and walking robots for monitoring the condition of the port's superstructure or an autonomous ship demonstrator. By intelligently linking these systems via a cooperation platform, the aim is to optimize processes in the port and increase the safety and resilience of (digital) infrastructures in maritime logistics. To this end, the scientists want to apply for and implement projects together with the port industry in order to transfer the scientific findings into practical applications as quickly as possible.
The research institutes in Bremen involved in the project are BIBA - Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik, the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL), TOPAS Industriemathematik Innovation, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bremerhaven.
The Bremen institutes have been working together for many years in the Log
Dynamics research network, the 'Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics'. “One of our main topics is the digitalization of maritime logistics,” says Log
Dynamics spokesperson Prof. Michael Freitag. Building on previous activities such as joint collaborative projects and a concept study on the Smartport of the future, a laboratory infrastructure with innovative port technologies is now to be established with the Smartport Living Lab. “The state's funding commitment comes at exactly the right time,” Freitag continues, ‘because we have just started building our innovation community ’Smartport Transfer', which is being funded by the BMBF with 5 million euros as part of DATIpilot. The new Smartport Living Lab will be an important component of this community.”
Press release by the Senator for Environment, Climate and Science