Assuring Trustworthy, Safe and Sustainable Transport for All

Zero-emission and autonomous ferries can solve both transport and environmental needs for cities and local communities, and open new areas for sustainable infrastructure and housing development without the huge economic and ecological costs of building roads and bridges. They can connect people to services while enabling more sustainable living and increased well-being. However, the entire business model depends on the ability to build trust and societal acceptance of autonomous transport systems. Regulations and certification processes need to be adapted in sync with technology development and readiness. This means that independent third-party actors must be able to provide assurance through digital means, and to assure complex assets with integrated digital technologies. Conduction of assurance also requires innovation because the complex assets will be changing throughout their life-cycle and therefore require continuous assurance. Assurance must also serve to provide trust to society, attend to ethical dilemmas, and engage with citizens. The primary objective of TRUSST has been to innovate an integrated assurance framework that transforms a complex and interdependent system of people, technologies, organisations and the natural environment into a trust ecosystem. Key secondary objects were (1) to develop a structured modular, iterative and continuous assurance and deployment methodology, (2) to develop digital twins for virtual and continuous verification, assurance and deployment of complex autonomous ship systems, and (3) to innovate methods and tools for assessing and integrating environmental and societal impacts. The project was led by DNV, a leading risk, assurance and classification society, in partnership with Zeabuz, an autonomy provider startup, and Marine Technologies, a ship automation provider. NTNU has been a key R&D partner in integrating the societal aspects into the autonomy and assurance and understanding the opportunities and challenges of using digital twins and gaming technologies in the assurance and deployment of complex autonomous ship systems. The project has been successful in meeting its objectives, materialised in the following key deliverables: The first key deliverable is an Assurance of Digital Assets (ADA) framework guidance that documents the novel integrated assurance framework. The ADA Framework provides innovative approaches, methods, and tools to systematically link stakeholder concerns about safety, reliability, and efficiency in autonomous systems to clear technical requirements and responsibilities for each system module. The approach enables a modular, iterative and transparent assurance and deployment effort that can serve system developers, independent assurance providers, regulators and even society at large. The second key deliverable is a digital twin framework for autonomous ferries. The digital twin contains physics models of the hull, thrusters, gangways, docking mechanism, and other physical parts of the ferry. It also has advanced sensor models and a virtual reality representation of key operating surroundings and environmental conditions, such as traffic, wind, waves and currents. This work has enabled the creation of a virtual and continuous verification, assurance and deployment platform. The third key deliverable has three parts where the first is a Citizen Engagement report that explains the processes and results of a set of structured engagement efforts with a representative sample of citizens from the city of Trondheim. The second part is a report from a novel city simulation conducted by AugmentCity virtually deploying the autonomous transport system into a simulation of the city of Bergen to explore the societal and environmental impacts. The third part is a report from a Stakeholder workshop on the topic “Reclaiming Cities’ Waterways”.

The project has contributed with a scientifically sound foundation perform assurance and verification of complex and intelligent systems, such as autonomy or AI-based systems. This is necessary to build DNV’s position as a leading assurance provider in a market increasingly dominated by digital risks, enabling new and improved assurance services and tools for digital assets, and opening new market segments. The impact on Zeabuz is closely linked to the efficient implementation of their business plans, which hinges upon providing trust in safety of autonomy and demonstrate its beneficial impact on business excellence, the environment and society. The digital-twin technology that has been developed in the project has also been critical in supporting the development and safe deployment of the Zeabuz autonomy software. Marine Technologies are impacted through delivery of automation systems, improved efficiency and growth of a new segment within autonomous ships. City planners, construction and transport companies can also derive value, while citizens gain in well-being. This can impact Norway’s position as a leader in the provision of trust to deploy sustainable transport options, in addition to enabling the financial and societal value generation from autonomous transport systems.

Zero-emission and autonomous ferries can solve both transport and environmental needs for cities and local communities, and open new areas for sustainable infrastructure and sustainable housing development without the huge economic and ecological costs of building roads and bridges. These autonomous vehicles can connect people to services while enabling more sustainable living and increased well-being. But the entire business model of these vehicles is hinged upon the ability to build the necessary trust in autonomous transport systems. Regulations, certification processes and societal acceptance need to be adapted in sync with technology development and readiness. At the same time, it is urgent to transform the role of independent third-party actors as to be able to provide assurance through digital means, and to assure assets with integrated digital technologies. Current assurance methods and tools are ill equipped to build trust in assets that no longer are merely physical but rely on novel digital technologies for their functioning. Delivery of assurance also requires innovation as the assets will be changing throughout their life-cycle and require continuous assurance. Assurance must also serve to provide trust to society, attend ethical dilemmas and engage with citizens. The primary objective of TRUSST is to innovate an integrated assurance framework that transforms a complex and interdependent system of people, technology, organisations and the natural environmental into a trust ecosystem. This unlocks the potential for testing, deploying and scaling up autonomous passenger vehicles. Using the case of the Zeabuz transport concept and the pilot ferry Milliampere 2 owned by NTNU, this project innovates digital assurance concepts that integrate methods, tools, simulation-based testing, use of digital twins and citizen engagement methodologies to transparently provide trustworthiness to all stakeholders and unlock autonomous and sustainable transport.