Norwegian companies to develop fully autonomous ship

Norwegian agriculture firm, Yara International and guidance systems builder, Kongsberg Gruppen are to develop the Yara Birkeland, an autonomous and fully-electric container ship. They claim the new vessel will reduce NOx and CO2 emissions and improve road safety by removing up to 40,000 truck journeys in populated urban areas. Yara Birkeland will initially operate as a manned vessel, moving to remote operation in 2019 and expected to be capable of performing fully autonomous operations from 2020. Kongsberg
July 25, 2017 Read time: 1 min
Norwegian agriculture firm, Yara International and guidance systems builder, Kongsberg Gruppen are to develop the Yara Birkeland, an autonomous and fully-electric container ship.


They claim the new vessel will reduce NOx and CO2 emissions and improve road safety by removing up to 40,000 truck journeys in populated urban areas.

Yara Birkeland will initially operate as a manned vessel, moving to remote operation in 2019 and expected to be capable of performing fully autonomous operations from 2020.

Kongsberg is responsible for development and delivery of all key enabling technologies on vessel, including the sensors and integration required for remote and autonomous operations, as well as the electric drive, battery and propulsion control systems.

Operation is planned to start in the latter half of 2018, shipping products from Yara's Porsgrunn production plant to Brevik and Larvik in Norway.

Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • Berg Insight: Fleet Management in Australia and New Zealand expected to grow in years to come
    October 27, 2017
    The number of Fleet Management (FM) systems in active use is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15.7% from almost 0.7 million units in 2016 to 1.4 million by 2021. The findings come from the latest report from Berg Insight: Fleet Management in Australia and New Zealand - 2nd edition, which also estimates that the penetration rate in the total population of non-privately-owned fleet vehicles used by businesses is estimated to increase from 14.8% in 2016 to 27.8% in 2021.
    Read More
  • Dutch autonomous vehicle project to develop platooning
    December 1, 2015
    The i-CAVE (integrated Cooperative Automated Vehicles) research program, led by Prof. Dr H. Nijmeijer of the Technical University of Eindhoven and funded through a recently awarded grant of US$4.2 million, aims to develop vehicles that can run both autonomously on dedicated roads or cooperatively on public roads. i-CAVE focuses on all important aspects involved in the development of such dual mode systems. Other participants include Delft University of Technology and University of Twente, 2getthere, DAF
    Read More
  • Bird pledges $150m to Euro programmes
    March 19, 2021
    Money will be spent during 2021 on sustainable micromobility schemes and products
    Read More
  • Meeting the challenges of smartcard fare payment
    July 4, 2012
    David Crawford monitors a growing trend in contactless smartcard ticketing The north east United States has become a hive of activity in the smart fare payment arena. In October 2011, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) published, as a preliminary to an imminent procurement process, the detailed concept of its New Fare Payment System (NFPS). Based on open payment industry standards, this is designed to be implemented on all MTA bus and subway services operated by New York City Transit (
    Read More

Highlighted Content