Cargo Business Techwire

Friday, June 27, 2014

Kongsberg project aims to crease next generation ship navigation software

Kongsberg, which provides high tech systems for the oil and gas industry, announced a new project that may effect the next generation of ship navigation software.

Kongsberg Norcontrol IT will lead a three-year, $3.8 million project called SESAME Straits, designed to develop and validate a revolutionary concept for a next generation ship traffic management system in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.

This is an important pilot for International Maritime Organisation's e-Navigation implementation strategy. Partly funded by the Research Council of Norway, the $3.8 million SESAME Straits project is the first to be delivered under the international Straits e-navigation Alliance. The Kongsberg project will get guidance from the Straits e-navigation alliance High Level Advisory Board, which met in London in May.

The HLAB includes governmental members from Singapore, Norway, Malaysia and Indonesia and experts from important maritime organizations such as IMO, IHO, IALA, ICS, BIMCO, CIRM, IEC, and the Research Council of Norway. The advisory board is co-chaired by Norway and Singapore.

Kongsberg Norcontrol IT has already established a C-Scope VTS system for the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. This experience will benefit the company's work on the new SESAME Straits project, which will build upon the earlier IMO Marine Electronic Highway demonstration project.

"The project will be a highly-important test-bed for IMO's e-Navigation program," said Siddi Wouters, chief technology officer and project manager for SESAME Straits at Kongsberg Norcontrol IT.

Wouters said that they would develop a new digital communication infrastructure for exchanging information between ship and shore. The new infrastructure uses the VHF Digital Exchange System via terrestrial and potentially over satellite links as well as the e-Navigation S-100 framework for data exchange. He said this would be a critical enabling factor for the whole e-Navigation concept.

"The project intends to revolutionize traditional VTS systems which today only provide information, organization and assistance services locally," Wouters said. "The innovation of the proposed C-Scope system is to provide a cooperative platform that will be able to predict traffic for tactical as well strategic planning for several days in advance of arrival."

For more of the Marine Offshore Technology story: marineoffshoretechnology.net