The initiative for the designated area in the Trondheim fjord was undertaken by Kongsberg Seatex, Kongsberg Maritime, MARINTEK, NTNU and Maritime Robotics in cooperation with Trondheim Harbour, the Norwegian Maritime Authority and the Norwegian Coastal Administration. On the 30th of September 2016 an agreement was signed, where the partners signed up for a common intention of facilitating tests of new concepts and full scale programs related to autonomous vessels in Trondheimsfjorden and the surrounding coastal areas. The partners will share knowledge and experiences and contribute to the development of the test area.
The use of the test area presume the operation to be within in force legislation, and that necessary communication and surveillance infrastructure is established.
• Trondheimsfjorden is a fjord with few archipelagos and relatively limited ship traffic
• Trondheim has focus on Ocean Space Centre and the ocean based industry, and a close cooperation between
university, research institute and industry. Cooperation has existed for many year within e.g. ship concepts,
aquaculture, mineral recovery, robotics, autonomous ships etc.
• NTNU and MARINTEK are central research actors within maritime research, together they represents the world's
largest marine technology research centre.
• There is already ongoing severe research activity in the fjord related to autonomy.
• NTNU owns and operates the research vessel Gunnerus, which is being used all year for full scale tests.
• AMOS (Autonmous Marine Operations and Systems) is a Center of Excellence with focus on autonomy, and with
substantial activity in the area.
• Several companies situated in Trondheim has engaged in the development of autonomous system (Kongsberg
Maritime, Kongsberg Seatex, Maritime Robotics, FosenYards, Kystrederiene, Trondheim Harbour etc.)
• The test area in Trondheimsfjorden will provide positive spin-off effects for industry and research, and provide
valuable experiences that can be applied to new establishments of test areas in Norway.
• The test area in Trondheimsfjorden demonstrates the Norwegian interests and strategy for autonomous ship.
Why Trondheimsfjorden
