In this paper we present a low noise amplifier (LNA) designed under space de-rating conditions reaching an average noise figure of 1.45 dB within a frequency range of 44 to 50 GHz and 1.55 dB from 40 to 50 GHz. Inside the targeted bandwidth of 47 to 54 GHz the gain is 26 dB with a gain variation less than 1.2 dB over the entire frequency band. Additionally to the low noise figure the LNA is featuring a 1-dB compression point above 10 dBm over the entire bandwidth by using a large gate-width output transistor.

This paper presents how autonomous tests can be documented and why this is important. A test area in Norway, more specifically the Trondheimsfjorden Test Area for Autonomous Ships, is used as a pilot to conduct tests with autonomous vessels and for demonstrating the procedure of documenting results. There are typically three stages in such a documentation process; 1) To register and inform about a planned test on the fjord, 2) To inform about ongoing tests and to document test results by collecting data from the vessel and from the sensor infrastructure, 3) To show historical tests and be able to do analytics or conduct learning from previous tests. The Trondheimsfjorden Test Area has been instrumented with communication and navigation infrastructure, a control centre for control and monitor of the install infrastructure and for remote operation of a ship, and a data centre for planning autonomous tests, storing data, and for sharing of test results. By documenting test results in a standardized format, this can be used to verify new technology and solutions, share knowledge and experiences, and for documentation procedures and guidelines used for the purpose. A demonstration held in The Trondheimsfjorden Test Area showed the importance of streamlining the process of conducting autonomous test and documenting them in a standardized format. This work is based on the results from the research project NAVISP-EL3-005 “Trondheimsfjorden Test Area for Autonomous Ships”. The Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) is the programme of the European Space Agency to support the competitiveness of the European industry in the wide field of positioning, navigation and timing while supporting member states in enhancing national objectives and capabilities in the sector.

Resilience is an important feature of autonomous systems. To be resilient, a control system must be stable, robust, and safe. This paper explores the use of hybrid feedback controllers to ensure robustness towards uncertainties and disturbances in motion control systems for autonomous ships. Motivated by recent developments in control barrier functions (CBFs) for safe maneuvering of autonomous ships, a CBF-based hybrid kinematic controller for obstacle avoidance is proposed. The controller uses course angle as control input, making it suitable for ships with a limited speed envelope. The performance of the controller is illustrated by simulations, using an underactuated ship as a case study.

Measurements of the Very High Frequency (VHF) downlink from NorSat-2 has been analysed in the context of development of the waveforms for VHF Data Exchange via Satellite. Received carrier, noise and interference power were analysed and compared with theory and simulations. The received power levels are as expected for most of the time. Slowly varying fading is observed with peak-to-peak variations in the order of 20 dB and a standard deviation of 4.2 dB. The fading has a close to normal distribution (in dB) and is mainly caused by sea reflections and to a lesser degree shadowing by the ship structure. Although time periods with significant interference were observed, most of the time the noise floor can be classified as residential or city according to ITU-R Rec. 372 on Radio noise. The noise plus interference level measured did not represent white Gaussian noise, and it is beneficial if the waveform(s) is robust with respect to both narrowband and wideband noise. The received C/N0 showed a dynamic range of about 25 dB, exceeding 34.7 dBHz for 95 per cent of time.

Two Norwegian AIS-satellites, NorSat-1 and NorSat-2, were launched in July 2017. Both are equipped with the ASR x50, the latest space-AIS receiver developed by Kongsberg Seatex AS, offering advanced signal processing and continuous operation on all four AIS channels. The NorSat-satellites collect ~ 1.5 million messages from ~ 50,000 ships per day (24 h) each, which is a factor ~ 2.8 increase in the number of messages compared to the ASR 100 on-board AISSat-1 and AISSat-2. The improvements of the AIS-satellites can be attributed to three developments: the performance of the receiver, the use of antenna diversity, and the use of frequency channel diversity. Daily statistics for February 2018 over the Mediterranean Sea illustrate the improvements: The median value of the number of messages received with NorSat-1 using only one antenna is 2.3 times higher than for AISSat-1. When both NorSat-1 antennas are used, the improvement factor becomes 4.1, and finally, when two additional receiver channels are used to collect long-range AIS messages, the total improvement becomes 8.2 times. In terms of ships detected, the factors are 1.8, 2.7, and 4.4 for the respective steps. Long-range AIS messages amount to just 5% of the total AIS messages received by NorSat-1 in August 2017, but it allows to detect 20% more ships on a global scale, and as much as 10 times more ships in a the high-traffic area in the North Sea.

There is an increasing focus on autonomous transport systems, and Norway has a technological and market advantage for such systems in the maritime segment. The national transport plan emphasizes that it is an objective to transfer more cargo onto keel. The MarOff, Maritim21, Hav21 programs and the political platform agrees, that autonomous vessels are an important part of this effort. Sea transport must be competitive with regard to price, efficiency and regularity, and should also have an environmental gain as well as a risk reduction.Autonomous transport systems are one of the means of moving cargo tranport from truck to ship, but it must be documented that an autonomous transport operation can be carried out effectively, safely, and with enough barriers against errors. Land-based infrastructure will be important for the success of autonomous shipping. This paper will describe the IMAT project’s objectives regarding definition, development and testing of land-based sensors, communication and control systems for support of an autonomous transport operation. The technological infrastructure will be able to give the transport system increased sensor redundancy and is integrated with shore control centres that will ensure safe and efficient operation. Land-based infrastructure is crucial for the safe implementation of autonomous maritime transport systems and has been given less focus compared to the autonomous vessel itself. This is what we will address within the IMAT project.

As commercial product development companies start to apply Systems Engineering principles into more processes there are increasing process interfaces and competing paradigms to address. The combined Agile and Lean Systems Engineering-processes make it more suitable for applications in the commercial sector, such as the automotive industry. The combination is used to meet the increasing demands of higher performance with shorter development cycles, and increased quality in products, along with reduced cost. This paper renders an exploratory research within a product development company. Investigating challenges with their approach and structure of knowledge based development, including the implementation of a lean system of Knowledge Briefs, also known as A3 reports. The system is implemented to support the process of identifying the root cause of a problem, creating new knowledge, capturing the knowledge, and disseminating the knowledge in order to foster effective reuse in multidisciplinary product development. To identify current challenges, literature on knowledge management has been studied, along with analysis of the company’s theoretical and practical process of knowledge management. The research identified multiple challenges towards successful knowledge reuse within the company’s current process and structure, specifically addressing the lost potential for knowledge reuse through the lack of awareness through the Communities of Practice (COP) and the K-briefs focus on knowledge capture. The challenges assist in the mapping of unused potential of knowledge based development and when defining the path for future initiatives.

Multi-vehicle operations using various types of unmanned vehicles (UVs) can increase efficiency of marine data acquisition, reduce the crew risk and lower mission costs. These types of missions are very complex and often involve systems that are not interoperable. From an operational perspective however, some level of integration is necessary. Typically, a common network system architecture and Situation Awareness (SA) platform are required. The architecture allows operators to transfer data between vehicles and their operators, while the SA platform allows to monitor mission progress and react to changes. This paper presents a network system architecture used during an experiment realized in Spring 2016 in Norway. 8 departments from 5 institutions worked together to combine operation of 4 UVs (aerial, surface, underwater), a support vessel and on-shore team. The description is followed by a backbone network performance analysis. Several cases are presented, with focus on a transmission between manned vessel and Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), including direct connection, and data-relay mechanism via Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

In April 2016, NTNU, FFI, Kongsberg Seatex, LSTS and Maritime Robotics set up an experiment to explore their capability to combine the research vessel Gunnerus, the AUV Hugin, the UAV X8 and the USV Mariner in a network of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles. Communication, manoeuvring, onboard processing and operational complexity are essential components in such networks. To provide communication the MBR broadband radio system was implemented. To show the capabilities of the system proposed, a scenario with seabed mapping and target recognition was defined. The experiment made it apparent that these networks has the potential of significantly saving cost for data collection in marine research and management by reducing ship time. To fully unlock the potential of networks of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles, the missions of each vehicle need to be more integrated.

We report a two-stage diode-pumped Er-doped fiber amplifier operating at the wavelength of 1550 nm at the repetition rate of 10-100 kHz with an average output power of up to 10 W. The first stage comprising Er-doped fiber was core-pumped at the wavelength of 1480 nm, whereas the second stage comprising double-clad Er/Yb-doped fiber was clad-pumped at the wavelength of 975 nm. The estimated peak power for the 0.4-nm full-width at half-maximum laser emission at the wavelength of 1550 nm exceeded 4-kW level. The initial 100-ns seed diode laser pulse was compressed to 3.5 ns as a result of the 34-dB total amplification. The observed 30-fold efficient pulse compression reveals a promising new nonlinear optical technique for the generation of high power short pulses for applications in eye-safe ranging and micromachining.