KULeuven - FROM AUTOPILOT TO AUTONOMY: Context-aware perception, planning and control for inland waterways

🚢 From Autopilot to Autonomy on Inland Waterways

Autonomy at sea is advancing rapidly, but inland waterways bring an entirely different level of complexity: shallow waters, bank effects, locks, dense traffic, variable sensor reliability… Context is everything.

That’s why KULeuven is developing COSAIN – Co-Designing Safety and Control for Autonomous Navigation on Inland Waterways, a strategic research project (2026–2030).

🔍 What they’re working on:
• Context-aware perception and modelling
• Robust and real-time motion planning & collision avoidance
• Static and dynamic safety case frameworks
• Sensor selection, fusion, and world modelling
• Testing and validation from simulation → lab scale → real barges

🧠 Their vision: a fully adaptive autonomy stack that integrates dynamic safety monitoring with advanced control and planning — enabling safe manoeuvring even in the most challenging scenarios such as lock operations and close-quarters navigation.