Kongsberg Maritime Establishes Cybernetics R&D Groupo

Kongsberg Maritime sets up cybernetics R&D group for work on DP, navigation & autiomation systems

The group, which is currently recruiting new members, will mainly consist of PhD-level professionals in the field of engineering cybernetics, says  head of the group, Morten Breivik.

As an interdisciplinary field established during the Second World War, cybernetics takes its name from the Greek word 'kybernetes', meaning 'steersman'.

Historically, cybernetics has always been a core competence for Kongsberg Maritime. It started with sophisticated ship automation solutions from Norcontrol in the 1960s and continued with dynamic positioning from KV Albatross in the 1970s. Today Kongsberg Maritime is the custodian of this proud heritage, furthering it into a maritime world which is facing fundamental changes to operational concepts and manning solutions in the future.

"In the technical sense, cybernetics is about how dynamic systems such as ships, robots and chemical processes behave and how to control such systems automatically. Therefore, engineering cybernetics involves many disciplines including control engineering, systems theory, information technology, mathematics, physics, modelling for e.g. aerodynamics, hydrodynamics and chemical engineering, signal processing, image processing, instrumentation and navigation," says Breivik.

"Most central to cybernetics, however, is control engineering and systems theory. These sub-disciplines deal with basic cybernetic principles that cut across specific application areas and can be used for all types of systems. The other sub-disciplines then serve to support specific technology solutions based on these fundamental principles," adds Breivik.