Live Oftedal/NTNU
The new drone is considered the world’s best autonomous underwater vehicle and can be used both to improve our understanding of the ocean and to strengthen defence capabilities. NTNU will contribute to the further development of the drone.
At the Nordic Defence and Security Conference, a group including the Minister of Defence and NTNU’s Rector announced that the Norwegian Ocean Technology Centre is acquiring a HUGIN 6000 from Kongsberg.
Minister of Defence Tore O. Sandvik highlighted that Norway is at its best where conditions are salty, wet and cold, and pointed to the critical infrastructure in deep waters that is essential both to Norway’s export revenues and Europe’s energy security.
“Norway is a world leader in maritime research and ocean autonomy. HUGIN is the result of long-term technological collaboration between the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and Kongsberg. It is a good example of a Norwegian high-tech success story. Dual-use technology strengthens our defence capabilities. When civilian and military technology development work together, we build national expertise that can accelerate development and innovation,” said Minister of Defence Tore O. Sandvik.
The HUGIN drone can dive to a depth of 6,000 metres, enabling it to cover all Norwegian territorial waters. It can map between two and four square kilometres of seabed per hour, has a very high-resolution camera and can operate for three days without recharging its batteries.
“With HUGIN, our research communities will gain access to an advanced underwater drone that offers tremendous opportunities to explore and better understand the ocean. The Norwegian Ocean Technology Centre is important for Norway’s ability to maintain its position as a high-tech maritime nation. For us as a leading university, the acquisition of HUGIN is also an important part of advancing autonomous vessels, which also are important for protecting oil and gas pipelines as well as internet and power cables,” said Rector Tor Grande.
The HUGIN will become part of the Norwegian Ocean Technology Centre’s growing fleet of ocean research equipment.
Arne Rinnan, EVP and CTO at Kongsberg, explained that HUGIN was developed in collaboration with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment 35 years ago.
“HUGIN is the autonomous underwater robot that can travel far and deep, and that you can expect to return when it has completed its mission. Its reliability, robustness and ability to observe objects on the seabed and in the water column are unmatched,” said Rinnan.
He said that Kongsberg is looking forward to many years of collaboration with NTNU.
“I am pleased that researchers at the Norwegian Ocean Technology Centre will contribute to the further development of this technology. This will probably be the largest investment in the Fjordlab part of the centre,” said the Minister of Defence.
NTNU’s underwater drones have been used for everything from locating bombs and grenades from the Second World War and mapping climate conditions in the Barents Sea to repairing a cable in the Baltic Sea after it was sabotaged.
The opportunities for research and development are now being expanded.
– The goal is to develop the technology and autonomy of tomorrow. And at the same time also giving researchers the opportunity to collect ocean data of a quality that provides new insights into the processes shaping the ocean, said Martin Ludvigsen. He works as Professor at the Department of Marine Technology and Project Manager for the Norwegian Ocean Technology Centre – Fjordlab.
He will lead the development of NTNU’s HUGIN platform together with a larger team.
– The HUGIN drone is an incredible platform for collaboration, where researchers from different parts of NTNU can work together, said Grande, highlighting security, biology, monitoring and the Arctic.
Autonomous and uncrewed vehicles above and below the sea surface will increasingly operate without expensive support vessels. They will also increasingly collaborate with one another to carry out missions. Underwater vehicles will remain submerged for longer periods and perform missions from beneath the surface.
– NTNU is at the forefront of education, research and innovation in technologies and methods for the remote operation of autonomous vehicles, from the ocean to outer space. This benefits ocean management and value creation in industries such as offshore oil and gas, offshore wind, fisheries, aquaculture and shipping, and increasingly also security and emergency preparedness, said Asgeir J. Sørensen, Professor at the Department of Marine Technology.
He highlighted that the investment in HUGIN and the collaboration with Kongsberg represent a significant boost to capacity building that will strengthen Norway’s national capabilities and presence in Norwegian waters.
NTNU’s HUGIN will also be used to collect data for natural and social science research.
“The HUGIN platform is the most effective tool we have for improving our understanding of what is happening underwater. NTNU’s current equipment takes two to three days to map the same area that a HUGIN can cover in one hour,” said Martin Ludvigsen.
NTNU’s marine robotics research community is already involved in a number of major research projects in Norway and internationally. It is also involved in several research project applications.
NTNU’s HUGIN will be an important part of Norway’s largest research project, Arctic Ocean 2050. It will also play a role in an application for a Centre of Excellence focusing on the development of autonomy. In addition, it will be used in a Centre for Emerging Technologies, as well as in Norwegian and European defence research.
Researchers and technicians at NTNU have previously helped other researchers investigate marine life off Hawaii and beneath the polar ice at the North Pole.
Underwater robots from this research community have been used to map Lake Mjøsa in close collaboration with archaeologists from the NTNU University Museum together with the Norwegian Mapping Authority. They have also been used to map cold-water coral reefs in the Trondheimsfjord and to patrol gas pipelines off Melkøya.
Read more about NTNU’s autonomous inspection of a subsea gas pipeline
This spring, the research community assisted the Oslo police in recovering Norwegian resistance fighters who had been executed and dumped into the sea in wooden crates by German forces during the Second World War. The operation was carried out in close collaboration with the crew of NTNU’s research vessel Gunnerus.
– NTNU is the leading university in the world working with drone development and research in this way, with technologists collaborating across disciplines with natural scientists, archaeologists and security experts. When we work with relevant platforms such as HUGIN, we move closer to the research frontier and to different areas of application. A small number of research institutes are doing the same, said Martin Ludvigsen.