Research Vessel Equipped with Integrated IoT System

KVH Industries, Inc. and Kongsberg Digital completed the installation of their first joint maritime IoT system on an active working vessel.

The team installed a KVH Watch VSAT antenna for IoT connectivity and the Kognifai Vessel Insight platform on Simrad Echo, a Norwegian research vessel owned and operated by Kongsberg, which will continue normal operations during the pilot maritime IoT project. Together, KVH Watch and Kognifai Vessel Insight provide an integrated infrastructure for IoT connectivity and vessel-to-shore data.

“While Vessel Insight works as an infrastructure for accessing contextualized 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. 

Simrad Echo will rely on Kognifai Vessel Insight to monitor main and auxiliary systems on the vessel and help ensure 100% availability. For example, 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 optimize vessel operations.

The data flow from Simrad Echo will be facilitated by KVH Watch IoT Connectivity as a Service, a VSAT solution that leverages 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 utilize Simrad Echo as a platform to develop tighter integrations for remote support and smart bandwidth utilization that will benefit both new and existing customers.

KVH and Kongsberg Digital will use the Simrad Echo pilot program to continue to enhance their maritime IoT solution.

Simrad Echo KVH Watch Antenna (Photo: KVH)