Mission Statement

The Living Lab provides an opportunity for companies and research institutions in the domain of multi-modal smart logistics, Green Energy, Autonomous shipping to take their research and experiments to the next level, from a controlled lab environment to real-life operations. Our Living Lab is designed to let third parties collect extensive sensor data, test and integrate innovative technologies, and gain various insights in realistic operational scenarios.

Who we are

The Research & Innovation Center bridges the gap between R&D and day-to-day operations, with a focus on sustainable inland waterway logistics, Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and green energy solutions.With a practical, hands-on approach, we facilitate your smart, green, and multi-modal business development and uptake. We provide a real-life living lab that consists of a zero-emission inland vessel fleet equipped with various sensor systems and connected to intelligent shore-side systems. This full infrastructure, or parts of it, can be used for real-life experimenting, testing, and demonstrating, focusing on Smart Energy Terminal.

As a provider of inland navigation platforms, equipment, and a dedicated team for operational research, we want to contribute to European ambitions such as the Green Deal and Fit55 in a pragmatic way. Our institution is a non-profit association that reinvests all profits in new research material and knowledge.

Services for rent or use

Living Lab provides several services

  • Connection and interaction with the North Sea Port and inner city of Ghent (Belgium)
  • Regional transport by ship to the city hub, from city hub to the city center of Ghent.
  • Transshipment and quay-side interaction with trucks, trailers, lift trucks, and professional drivers.
  • 4 types of urban vessels (work ship, cargo ship, passengers ship and mixed use) with professional skippers.
  • Several types of last mile solutions (cargo bikes…).
  • Remote control sailing and mooring from Command Center.
  • Automation and real-time decision making for vehicles and ships.
  • Object detection and recognition (equipment available of new equipment to be tested).
  • Plug in PLC connection on the vessel or NMEA2000.
  • 4G and 5G bundle and satellite connection as gateway on the ship.
  • Green, electric propulsion systems (actuation, monitoring, …).
  • Vessel platooning testing in physical or digital connection
  • Ship identification in various configurations (e.g., loaded and unloaded).
  • Collect sensor data from various sensors, such as AIS, IMU, GNSS (GPS, Galileo,…), LiDAR, water- and air quality, depth sensors, among many others.
  • Innovation with a temperature-controlled multifunctional city box (batteries, food,…).
  • Test facilities for synchromodal smart logistics (vessels, trucks, IW, cargobikes, Green Last Mile providers,…)
  • Drone testing facilities in several applications

Energy transition

  • Tests with use of H2 in ICE CHP – grid support.
  • Tests with H2 fuel cells for small ships.
  • Use of swap bodies with battery pack.
  • Power supply for seagoing and IW ships
  • Shore power for small ships
  • Swap modular Energy containers
  • Swap system for battery packs for small ships
  • Power hub for truck loading
  • Grid support

Energy transition

As a Real Life Living Lab, with workable area in a city of Oveer 280,000 inhabitants and linked to one of the largest European ports, we want to be a test bed where different types of usecases can be worked out in terms of smart logistics, autonomous sailing and driving, Smart Green Solutions and Communication connections.

We have land equipment (trucks and truckers, warehouses, cranes, …) and water-related material (Command Center, IW Vessels, Zero Emission Urban Vessels, Hard- and Software for Autonomous Sailing, …), Air-bound Material (Drones, ….) and Energy Related Material (H2, ICE, swap batterycontainers for charging vessels, ….) available to set up intelligent systems as testing.

We have access to people and materials to fit into many proposals.

Value Proposition

Our value proposition is that we are a test lab on the scale of a city and a port where we can test all kinds of pilots and demonstration use cases in the field of land, water and air-related research results. Further possibilities are the tests with communication around 5G, satellite communication and other forms of data transfer with an eye for cybersecurity, DT, ….

In the field of automation of small zero emission vessels for transport of goods (up to 45 T) and people, a high TRL level has been reached, which means that specific use cases such as vessel train, platooning, automated mooring, etc. are among our test possibilities.

From a Command Center that is to be further expanded, ships and land equipment are controlled via remote control. Various types of sensors and cameras are tested.

Go-to-market strategy

As an innovation lab we want to grow as a service provider for third parties and also execute and test our own projects. Through collaboration in various European and private projects we work together with many (semi-)public (Franhofer, DLR, IMEC, cities, …. ) and academic institutions (UGent, TUD, UGal, UnDublin, …) and private partners (ABB, Damen, Grimaldi, Siemens, …) in various research areas.

We also have several patents in the field of the development of a Smart Terminal, automated steering system for flexible small ships that increase maneuverability and dock autonomously.

Our growth strategy lies in further research and innovative solutions for controlling ships and vehicles in an automated way, together with land-based processes for autonomous loading and unloading, innovative Green Energy solutions,…

That is why we are looking to build solid partnerships to share our knowledge and bring certain innovations to the market in Europe.

In addition to the research department, we have also built a commercial operational branch that ships goods and people into the city and removes waste from the city with small ships. The development of an energy hub with charging points for trucks, shore power installations and swap systems for battery containers is being expanded with an innovative grid support system.

The commercial department consists of SMEs that work closely together on implementing a synchromodal logistics flow in the normal problem chain, using the innovations that have been tested in the research department.