Key points
- TMC and Kongsberg Digital will develop what they call the world’s first digital twin for subsea nodule collection.
- The digital twin will be a core component of TMC’s planned Adaptive Management System for environmental monitoring.
- The system will use machine learning on sensor data to predict environmental impacts and report them on a dashboard.
- Kongsberg Digital President Hege Skryseth called it the industry’s first operational and environmental work surface for deep sea collection.
- The companies are focused on developing the world’s first digital twin for subsea nodule collection, a core component of a broader Adaptive Management System (AMS) designed to enable sub-sea operations within targeted environmental impact thresholds
- The planned AMS will generate data feeds from environmental and operating sensors, use machine learning to make environmental impact predictions and include an environmental dashboard for monitoring and reporting impacts
- A world-class provider of cloud services and digital solutions to the energy and maritime industries, Kongsberg Digital will adapt and connect its proven technology with The Metals Company’s nodule collection and environmental monitoring and data systems to enable safe and robust deep-sea operations
Once completed and validated, the digital twin will be a core component of TMC’s future Adaptive Management System [Watch Video]. The Company plans to build out its AMS as an iterative and predictive state-of-the-art system that will use environmental and operational data to enable TMC to keep its deep-sea activities within ecological thresholds expected to be set by the
“We are excited to partner with TMC in what will be the world’s first operational and environmental industrial work surface for deep-sea polymetallic nodule collection,” said Hege Skryseth, President of Kongsberg Digital and EVP KONGSBERG. “With the successful rollout of Kongsberg Digital’s ‘Kognitwin’ in the energy industry, we are delighted to now be working with TMC to deliver a digital twin solution designed to help simulate and manage the deep-sea nodule collection process within regulatory requirements. Collaborating and innovating to deliver solutions to enable a more sustainable operation for producing metals — that are critical to power economic growth — is an exciting opportunity.”
Upon successful completion of the initial work under the agreement, TMC and Kongsberg Digital may choose to enter into a broader agreement to complete the development of systems and software to support the operation of the Digital Twin.
Through its strategic partnership with Allseas, TMC is developing a deep-sea nodule collection system to responsibly recover polymetallic nodules from the seafloor and transfer them to the surface for transportation to an onshore processing plant. Across two contract areas held by its subsidiaries, the Company has identified 1.6 billion tonnes of nodules, containing in situ resources of nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese equivalent to the requirements of 280 million electric vehicles – about the size of the entire US passenger vehicle fleet.
About The Metals Company
About Kongsberg Digital
Kongsberg Digital, a subsidiary of KONGSBERG, is a provider of next-generation software and digital solutions, to customers within maritime, oil and gas, and renewables and utilities. The company consists of more than 500 software experts with leading competence within the internet of things, smart data, artificial intelligence, maritime simulation, automation and autonomous operations. Kongsberg Digital is the group-wide center of digital expertise for the KONGSBERG group.
