Further development of the presently available controllers will be made to extend their applicability towards more complex situations, such as ship to ship interaction (e.g. meeting, overtaking, passing of moored vessels, ship-tug interaction); and complex harbour manoeuvres requiring thruster and/or tug assistance (e.g. berthing, lock entrance, turning manoeuvres).

In order to do so, the state-of-the-art new control techniques will be studied and then tested by free running model tests, which will be carried out in the towing tank for manoeuvres in shallow water (Ostend). In 2021 a free running control system will be available, which will enable to do tests with multiple ships of different sizes (between 4 and 8 m long).

The updated controllers will be integrated in the ship manoeuvring simulators and will be tested for their effectiveness in one or more practical cases in Belgium, China, or worldwide, which focusses on typical local conditions.