Waterborne platooning: A viability study of the vessel train concept

The research in this thesis is a viability study of a waterborne platooning concept called the Vessel Train (VT). This manuscript describes the VT characteristics. It explains how the VT’s advantages are reaped, as well as the VT’s challenges that need to be considered and dealt with. To assess the potential of the platooning concept an inland navigation and a short sea shipping case are studied. They elaborated upon detailed information on viable operating requirements for different vessel types and operating conditions. A general outlook regarding geographical application differences is considered by analysing the difference between European inland corridors, bridge interaction in urban areas and the global application potential.