The Hull to Hull (H2H) project was established in November 2017, and with the help of the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), EGNOS and Galileo, aims to help mariners in taking correct navigation decisions and create a fundamental basis for autonomous vessel operations: specifically targeting solutions that can enhance safety in busy waters and during close maneuvering.
The project is coordinated by Kongsberg Seatex, a subsidiary of Kongsberg Maritime. Project partners include SINTEF Ocean and SINTEF Digital for broad research-based expertise; KU Leuven, a leading European university and expert on inland waterways navigation; and Mampaey Offshore Industries, a Dutch company specialized in towing, berthing and mooring systems.
H2H focuses on solutions for measuring the location and orientation of a vessel and creating a 3-D digital twin representing the vessel’s hull, which is linked to a coordinate system, e.g. WGS84. This data will then be used as input to an autonomy controller. H2H will also support manual navigation, providing reliable input for the captain or navigator to make better informed decisions. This could potentially be achieved by, for example, displaying the digital twin on the ECDIS or other display systems.
