b'Perspective: Digital Transformation Another trigger framing our digital transformation efforts of a ships arrival the exact water depth in any place in more automation for our port tenants. The most automatedthe port, container vessel owners heading to the port may terminal in the world is the Rotterdam World Gatewaybetter determine its safety margin and keel clearance. With terminal on the far end of the Maasvlakte 2. You dontprecise, predictive information, the vessel may decrease that see anyone in the terminal anymore. Its fully automated.safety margin and the keel clearance 30 centimeters. This Loading and unloading containers on vessels are completelymeans the vessel could add 20 more cargo units on board. automated. The only manual or human interference is aIn having this information, we are contributing to a more crane operator remotely controlling multiple cranes at thesustainable world, as well more efficient cargo transportation same time. With the tenants getting more and more auto- and less pollution. mated and digitized, the port has to provide more and more information. This is all technology and market demandAutonomous Ships of the Future driven. As our tenants change the way they do business,Autonomous ships and unmanned ships are not the same. were working to accommodate those changes. We realizeAccording to international law today, vessels traveling inter-the demand for more integrated, real-time, and seamlessnational waters must have a captain on board. I understand information will only increase. Therefore, we developed thisthat the International Maritime Organization, as part of its vision of the digital twin, which is a digital representation ofroadmap to autonomous shipping, may be changing this rule our physical port.shortly. From that point, it will be possible to have a captain on shore remotely controlling a boat, providing he has full Developing a Digital Twin access to all the necessary systems. That will be the first The port of Rotterdam is committed to becoming the worldstep for autonomous shipping. The first autonomous vessel smartest port and the development of the digital twin isalready is in production. Its a ferry called Falco in Finland. key. It is a virtual representation of a physical object andMany people might not be aware of it, but we are living in systemacross its entire lifecycle. It uses digital tools andan autonomous vessel era right now. The first one is already real-time data to virtually create, test, build, and monitorin production. But it still has a captain on board, because the goings on at the port. The digital twin will be anregulation requires it. The essential elements of autonomous exact digital replica of our operations, mirroring all of ourshipping include a vessel with Global Positioning System resources and tracking ship movements, infrastructure,(GPS)-location technology, a smart ship equipped with weather, geographical information, and water depth data active/moving sensors, a smart infrastructure equipped with with 100 percent accuracy.passive/fixed sensors, and integrated, real-time information. Developing the digital twin is a way to anticipate the signifi-cant transformation to the near futurethe company of the digital, fully autonomous ship. Were taking a digital ecosystem approach. Our geographic information system (GIS)-powered digital twin would allow port managers to view the operations of all the primary players. It would provide an accurate, current picture of what is going on in the porteverything from the weather to how many ships are sailing about, their speed, and where they are headed. Simulations would be run digitally to improve efficiency and save money in the real port. We anticipate being able to pinpoint the best times for ships to berth and offload or take on cargo, because the digital twin simulations will give them the optimal water depths and berth vacancies, among other variables. In the digital twin, we can predict with more precision the future water depth. Water depth in the ports consists of the water bottom, the drudging area, the drudging depth, and the water height. In Rotterdam, at the seaside, we have a tide of one to two meters. If we can predict 72 hours ahead WINTER 2019 / 2020 IBM Center for The Business of Government 71'