Kongsberg pushes ahead on digitalization

Kongsberg says that more and more customers are reaching out to learn how the development of maritime digital twins is progressing

Kongsberg is combining Kongsberg Digital’s two maritime divisions, its Maritime Digital Solutions unit and its Maritime Simulation hub, into one brand: Digital Ocean. It says the combination will enabling the synergies required to address the market need for maritime digital twins and the new brand will be headed up by former SVP Energy Andreas Jagtøyen, a digital twin expert.

The move is in line with Kongsberg’s efforts to push ahead on maritime digitalization solutions through Vessel Insight, its data infrastructure solution for vessel owners and operators, and complementary digital solutions such as Vessel Performance and Remote Services.

It is also partnering with other major maritime vendors such as DNV GL and, recently, ABB. All parties focus on digital deliveries based on their unique core expertise, to enable end-to-end digitalization that brings real value to customers.

“Digitalizing the maritime industry is not a one-company job and therefore Kongsberg is partnering up with experts externally and combining expertise internally to generate synergies,” says Jagtøyen. “Kongsberg Digital has delivered highly realistic maritime simulation technology for decades and our experience from the energy sector has shown us how valuable simulation technology is in bringing about functional dynamic digital twins.

Jagtøyen has a maritime background and has recently led Kongsberg Digital’s investments in and development of the Kognitwin Energy digital twin solution for the energy sector.

“From a digital twin perspective, there are obvious synergies between what we have developed over decades on the simulation side and, more recently, on the data infrastructure side with Vessel Insight,” he says. “More and more customers reach out to learn how the development of maritime digital twins is progressing, both related to autonomous shipping and to solutions supporting more efficient and safe operation of advanced equipment and machinery on board the vessels. So, we believe this is a market to be reckoned with in the future. Together with the people in Kongsberg, with their massive maritime technology and software expertise, and our partners, we will give the market answers to their questions.”

KONGSBERG COOPERATION WITH ABB

Kongsberg Digital’s most recent partnership is an agreement with ABB Turbocharging to cooperate on edge data collection and ship engine performance analysis. The companies will work towards a common data infrastructure and accelerate the development of value-added digital applications and services.

The agreement will enable ABB Turbocharging to use Kongsberg Digital’s data infrastructure solution for vessels, Vessel Insight—which runs on Kongsberg Digital’s Kognifai ecosystem—as an additional data infrastructure service for ABB Turbocharging’s digital solutions.

They say that this sort of exchange of data between cloud platforms is fundamental to enabling remote diagnostics on vessel engines.

The recent introduction of continuous performance evaluation functionality in ABB’s advisory software for engines, ABB Ability Tekomar XPERT, allows time-series engine data to be transferred between platforms.

“Partnerships between major players are key in bringing about high value digital solutions to the maritime sector at a lower cost and faster pace,” says Hege Skryseth, President of Kongsberg Digital. “With Kongsberg Digital and ABB working together to increase the value offering to customers, we can deliver an even more attractive return on investment to vessel owners and operators.”

“Our goal is to empower ship owners and operators to extract the maximum value from their engine data,” says Cristian Corotto, Vice President Digital Customer Solutions, ABB Turbocharging. “This cooperation will help to deliver the tools and insights needed to make their vessel operations better, their fleet management more efficient and their businesses more profitable and sustainable.”