Fields of Activity

Four groups work at the Fraunhofer CML

The group Sea Traffic and Nautical Solution deals with questions concerning nautical safety and control: Are existing port layouts suitable for future developments? Which technologies are required for the autonomous control of a ship? And how can an autonomous ship be monitored from shore? Among other things, the scientists use three ship handling simulators to develop answers to these questions.

In Ship and Information Management, solutions are developed for tasks in optimisation situations and for questions of maritime communication. Modern information management on board and ashore offers considerable potential for efficiency and profitability. The focus is on personnel and procurement processes, which often account for a large proportion of operating costs. For this reason, the CML has, for example, developed a solution for optimising crew deployment on board.

In Ports and Transport Markets, everything revolves around the analysis and forecasting of maritime transport chains and port locations. Strategic location concepts for ports are developed here, as are terminal layouts, which are mapped in parallel two or three dimensional on a Smartboard. A further focus of this group is the research of digitisation processes in the port environment and their implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Port Technology group deals with research questions relating to automation and digitalization in ports. The focus here is on the safe, economical and low-emission design of processes and structures with regard to cargo handling on terminals.