From its base in Horten, Kongsberg Digital delivers world-leading technology to oil companies, offshore companies and maritime academies worldwide.

Kongsberg Digital was set up to be an internal driving force for digitalization within the Kongsberg Group. In recent years, they have also proven to be a strong driving force in the international maritime industry.

“Maritime has always been a part of Horten,” says Tone Merete Hansen, Senior Vice President at Kongsberg Digital.

“We have an office here because the maritime industry is so firmly established here, as well as the fact that Horten has developed into a real technology town.

MAKING NUMBERS OF REALITY

Kongsberg Digital's main business is maritime simulation.

“Put simply, we turn reality into series of numbers by means of advanced mathematics, physics, thermodynamics, hydrodynamics and programming,” says Hansen.

“We create a synthetic world where we can build different scenarios. We can choose where in the world we want to be, what time of year it is, what the weather and wind will be like.”

To this synthetic world, Kongsberg Digital can then introduce ship models or different circumstances. In other words, they create a virtual world where people can test their abilities, expand their knowledge and build additional expertise.

Such virtual worlds are used to train everything from high school students to more advanced offshore operations.

CREATING GREATER SAFETY

The maritime industry is known to be conservative when it comes to new initiatives, and has generally been slow to jump on the digitalization bandwagon. Kongsberg Digital nevertheless sees many opportunities ahead, especially as the industry now has a pronounced focus on autonomous vessels.

One example is the Yara Birkeland, which runs between Porsgrunn and Brevik in Telemark. Hansen believes this is just the beginning of an autonomous wave in the shipping industry.

“I can't imagine that you can run autonomous vessels and similar projects without first using a simulator,” says Hansen.

“Unfortunately, we see that accidents still happen in the maritime sector, but these are almost never due to equipment errors or human use of the equipment. These accidents are largely owing to human perception of the situation.”

The key to future safety may lie in their simulation models. Kongsberg Digital believes that by building expertise, as well as providing better situational awareness, the maritime industry can achieve safer and more cost-effective operations at sea.

“This can lead to fewer accidents, less pollution, as well as being better in terms of sustainability and for the environment. So I really believe that this is the way forward.”