Reliable Height Determination for an Efficient Bridge Collision Warning System on Inland Waterways

Abstract

In recent years, much effort has been devoted to the development of strategies to monitor and mitigate the risk of collision on inland waterways. In particular, collision avoidance of inland water vessels with bridges has been widely recognized as a threat to the efficiency on river transportation systems. A comprehensive feasibility study has identified GNSS-based developments as the most promising board-side techniques for a reliable height determination as basis for bridge collision warning system. This article investigates the performance evaluation of selected GNSS-based techniques for the accurate height determination with inland water traffic purposes. The performance of different techniques is discussed in relation to the availability of data provided by land-side augmentation systems and under consideration of the available infrastructure. Technical challenges are also investigated.