A low metal fence is all that separates you from the machines that roam the dockside. Looking like the lower part of a bus sliced off just above the wheels, each carries a container to or from the gigantic cranes that loom over the container ships moored nearby. No people are allowed into the area where they operate but these automated guided vehicles, or AGVs, move by themselves. They are aware of each other’s routes and weave safe paths between the cranes and stacks of waiting containers, ferrying cargo back and forth endlessly.

The Port of Hamburg in Germany was founded on 7 May 1189 by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. The automated dockyards are just one of the latest overhauls to a port that has been a major maritime hub for nearly 900 years.

But times change. The port has started to see a fall in the number of containers passing through it and the upgrade it says it really needs – a massive project to widen the river Elbe so that large ships can reach the port more easily – has just been put on hold once again.