A Review of Autonomous Tugboat Operations for Efficient and Safe Ship Berthing

Abstract

Autonomous ship technology, which includes real-time monitoring, satellite communication, and automatic navigation, is rapidly advancing. Despite significant research on single unmanned ships, there is a lack of studies on complex tasks, such as ship berthing using a swarm of autonomous tugboats. This review article provides an overview of various projects related to autonomous tugboats for ship berthing and discusses the research trends in the required technologies, including recognition, decision making, modeling, and control. We identify the areas that have been underexplored in existing studies and suggest future research directions to advance the field. Overall, this review contributes to a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities for the development of autonomous tugboats for ship berthing.