Improving Estimation of Ship Travel Times on Inland Waterways

We present an advanced method for estimating ship travel times on an inland waterway based on recorded ship trajectories. In contrast to previously published methods based on average travel times, we extend our modelling approach with respect to properties of the ship (length, width and forward) and environmental conditions (rain, illumination and wind). Input variables and modelling approaches have been varied for the different periods of a ship travelling on an inland waterway. While environmental conditions influence the travel time of a ship for driving into a lock, there is no effect visible during driving out. Travel times on sections between locks have been estimated based on previously observed speeds of the same ship. A previously presented method has been extended by a non-linear modelling approach, leading to superior results as shown by evaluations compared to the state of the art methods.