Two cargo ships introduced two years ago to transport trailers across Norway’s Oslofjord are about to enter the next phase of testing. Kongsberg Maritime, operator of the vessels, reports that in a joint project with Norwegian telecommunications provider Telenor Maritime, the vessels will be equipped with the new Eutelsat OneWeb flat antenna system for a test to expand connectivity on board ships.

The barges were built at the Indian shipyard Cochin Shipyard and completed began operations in June 2022 for ASKO, a Norwegian food company. Each vessel can carry 16 trailers with a maximum load capacity of 29 tons each, and they operate between Horten and Moss on the fjord. ASKO reported that it uses up to 800 tractor-trailers daily as part of its logistics operations. The barges save distance and fuel when crossing the fjord, and the longer-term plan is for a fleet of these vessels to operate along the coast as well. ASKO reports that it saves more than 1.2 million miles of road traffic annually and reduces emissions by 5,000 tons.

The approximately 220-foot-long barges are powered fully electrically by a 1,846 kWh battery. Each vessel weighs about 600 tons. Testing began in the fall of 2022, and once fully certified, they will be controlled from a center on land and use technology from Massterly, a joint venture between Wilhelmsen and Kongsberg. They are part of a new concept for using automation to increase the efficiency and sustainability of operations.

In the next round of tests, the two ships will be remotely controlled from the Remote Operation Center. However, one of the challenges remains connectivity.

“Seamless connectivity remains one of the biggest challenges for remote and autonomous operations, especially on the open sea,” said Pål André Eriksen, Senior Vice President, Remote & Autonomous Solutions at Kongsberg Maritime. “Overcoming the challenges of global connectivity and available bandwidth will unlock great potential for the use of such technologies in the future.”

According to the companies, overcoming the connectivity issues will unlock the next phase of the project and expand the applicability of the technologies. Knut Fjellheim, CTIO of Telenor Maritime, says they are close to achieving 100 percent availability of ship connectivity.

The integration of the Eutelsat OneWeb antenna system on the vessel will enable Kongsberg Maritime to use LEO (Low Earth Orbit) connectivity and bandwidth for real-time data transmission, ship-to-shore communications, and remote and autonomous vessel control, it said. LEO technology will revolutionize all aspects of technology and connectivity for shipping.

The current design of the ASKO vessels has a fixed bridge for manual operation with a crew on board, but the vessels can also be connected to the shore-based operations center. Once the autonomous concept is proven and receives class approval, future builds will omit the bridge. They are on schedule with the previously announced timeline, which included a goal of testing unmanned operations by 2024. ASKO expects the vessels to play a key role in its goal of achieving zero-carbon logistics services by 2026.