Norled, Remota and Seam sign letter of intent for control centers and autonomous ferry operations
Norled, Remota AS and Seam AS have today signed a letter of intent (LOI) to collaborate on the further development and operation of a control center for marine operations and autonomous operations of ships.
Remota is a joint venture established by DeepOcean, Solstad Offshore and Østensjø Group to accelerate the use of remote services to reduce operating costs and emissions for the maritime and offshore industries.
SEAM is a leading provider of zero-emission solutions to the maritime industry.
Autonomous operations
The three companies will build on Remota’s already established control center for remotely operated marine and semi-autonomous vessel operations, and further develop this to include control of fully autonomous operations.
Through a joint control center environment, the parties want to share experiences, collaborate on technological solutions, promote standardization and exploit cross-functional synergies that benefit Norled and their customers as well as Remota and SEAM.
-“We have many vessels and cruises that we want to make more autonomous to increase safety and efficiency for our passengers and crew. In 2001, we carried out our first pilot for auto-crossing and auto-docking, and we are starting our third pilot this year. Autonomous navigation takes the technology to the next level and we are happy to join forces with SEAM and Remota to do so,” says Erlend Hovland, Chief Technology Officer at Norled.
pNorled AS is one of Norway’s largest ferry and express boat companies. The company has over 70 vessels and operates ferry and express boat services from the Oslo Fjord to Troms County. Norled has invested significantly in new types of vessels and environmentally friendly technology, such as the world’s first electric ferry in 2015 and the world’s first vessel running on liquid hydrogen in 2023.
Remote-controlled maritime operations
-“We strongly believe in competence transfer between different industries. We have extensive experience of remote-controlled operations from the offshore oil and gas industry. Both the technology and the expertise can be transferred to the operation of car and passenger ferries, but we need an innovative operator like Norled to facilitate this development. The benefit is significant cost savings and a smaller environmental footprint from vessel operations,” says Sveinung Soma, CEO of Remota.
Remota owns and operates advanced land-based Remote Operations Centers (ROCs), which are key to achieving huge emission reductions and cost savings for the maritime and offshore industries. Today, ROCs run remote operations for underwater robots (ROVs) and unmanned vessels (USVs) for the oil and gas industry. However, Remota’s goal has always been to expand its service offering to other industries, including providing remote operations and semi-autonomous maritime services to existing vessels. The collaboration with Norled and SEAM will help accelerate this development.
Zero emission solutions
In addition to advanced automation, SEAM supplies complete zero-emission products to a significant part of the Norwegian ferry market.
Research and development, as well as several projects related to hydrogen, ammonia and other hybrid solutions for greener maritime solutions, have made SEAM a leader in power management for new technologies.
SEAM has put a lot of hours and resources into digitizing and developing platforms with the aim of becoming an open integrator for the industry. As a power and automation integrator, it is natural for SEAM to deliver autonomous systems as part of the package, and it is important to be part of a community pulling in the same direction. SEAM’s role within this collaboration is to be a system integrator and technology provider.
– “This is a very exciting and innovative development project, which will enable a possible generational shift in vessel operation. We are incredibly proud to be part of this exciting collaboration with Remota and Norled,” says Gunvald Mortvedt, CEO of SEAM.
The letter of intent between the three parties was signed today at the Nor-Shipping 2023 industry event in Lillestrøm outside Oslo.
