Aiming at the intelligent development directions such as unattended operation of ship locks and the lack of systematic research on fully automatic ship locks,this study conducts research on the process,components,and implementation pathways of fully automatic ship locks.A fully automatic ship lock solution is proposed,consisting of four parts:fully automatic navigation command and dispatch,ship lock control,intelligent perception and safety management,operation and maintenance support system.A step-by-step implementation approach is suggested,expanding from individual points to broader areas and progressing from technically simpler to more complex tasks.Technologies such as remote centralized control,unified scheduling,and intelligent linkage are adopted to establish a regional ship lock centralized control system for unattended or local minimally attended operation.This system is demonstrated and applied at Yangzhou port and waterway regional ship locks.The results show that centralized control,unified scheduling,and intelligent linkage can ensure the safety and reliability of remote control and unified scheduling for ship locks,achieving unattended or minimally attended operation at the local level,significantly reducing the number of personnel in ship lock operation and dispatch positions across the city.The number of ship lock operators is reduced by over 60%,effectively enhancing the operational efficiency of the six ship locks under its jurisdiction.This also provides phased validation for the construction of fully automatic ship locks.