KVH and Kongsberg Digital report that they have successfully integrated a maritime IoT and ship to shore system on an active working vessel. A KVH Watch VSAT antenna providing IoT connectivity, together with the Kognifai Vessel Insight platform, have been installed on the Simrad Echo, a Norwegian research vessel owned and operated by Kongsberg. 

The Simrad Echo will continue its normal research operations during the pilot maritime IoT programme. 

KVH Watch and Kognifai Vessel Insight together provide an integrated infrastructure for IoT connectivity and vessel-to-shore data.

The two companies are collaborating to develop maritime IoT as a means to improve vessel operations through real-time monitoring and data analysis. Rhode Island based KVH and Norwegian Kongsberg Digital, part of the marine, defence and offshore oil and gas specialist Kongsberg Group, claim their bundled connectivity solution as one of the first cases of an active working vessel using an integrated maritime IoT solution.

Simrad Echo will rely on Kognifai Vessel Insight to monitor main and auxiliary systems on the vessel and help ensure 100% availability. As part of the trial, the Kongsberg Mapping Cloud application will move high-resolution echo sounding data from vessel to shore in real time so that shore-based experts can provide analysis to optimise vessel operations.

“While Vessel Insight works as an infrastructure for accessing contextualised quality data from a vessel or fleet, KVH is providing an alternative for IoT 
connectivity that enables the transfer of data from ship to cloud,” says Vigleik Takle, Kongsberg Digital’s senior vice president of maritime digital solutions. “We are very happy to be able to offer this as a connectivity option to our users.”

Data flow from Simrad Echo will be provided by KVH Watch IoT Connectivity as a Service, a VSAT solution built on KVH’s end-to-end maritime connectivity services and high throughput satellite (HTS) network. 

KVH Watch features two modes: Watch Flow, for 24/7, machine-to-machine data delivery compatible with major IoT ecosystems such as Kognifai; and Watch Intervention, for on-demand high-speed sessions for face-to-face support, remote equipment access, and very large data transfers. 

The two companies plan to use Simrad Echo as a platform to develop tighter integration for remote support and smart bandwidth use.

“Vessels are complex systems of systems that must work together for the vessel to perform reliably and efficiently,” says Robert Hopkins, Jr., KVH’s senior director of maritime services. “During the Simrad Echo pilot, Watch Flow will deliver a complete view of those systems to shore on a Kognifai Vessel Insight dashboard. One system, Kongsberg Mapping Cloud for very high-resolution bathymetry, is particularly data intensive, making it a great use case for our high-throughput Watch antenna.”

KVH and Kongsberg Digital will use the Simrad Echo pilot program to continue to enhance their maritime IoT solution, which is designed to enable remote equipment monitoring and performance optimisation for vessels ranging from small research vessels to tankers, bulk carriers, and container ships.