If you’ve ever wondered about the importance of shipping and navigation, think back to the grounding of the Ever Given container ship in the Suez Canal in March this year. The ship, stuck fast for six days, crippled shipping worldwide at the costs of billions of US dollars. A new edition of a popular textbook looks at marine guidance, navigation and control.
Robots are becoming more and more omnipresent in our lives, even though we may not notice. New research shows that when a boxy motorized hospital robot can talk, people find it funny and engaging. And that may help people be more willing to accept new technologies, like robots, in their everyday lives.
Two professors at NTNU have been awarded prestigious ERC Advanced Grants by the European Research Council.
What’s needed to be able to safely send a vessel to sea with no crew? How will these vessels detect a kayaker or a recreational boat that drifts into the course of the unmanned vessel? A new Centre for Research-Based Innovation, SFI AutoShip, will look for answers to these questions – and more.
A new partnership between the Centre for the 4th Industrial Revolution Ocean and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has been established to establish trust in ocean data collected from autonomous underwater vehicles.
Autonomous vehicles are in demand like never before. At NTNU, researchers have developed a circuit board that can be adapted to different drones with simple steps. Airbus has tested the system on a lunar landing prototype.
The launch of a new research centre for robotics will provide increased knowledge about the sea with the help of underwater drones and robots. This could impact Norway’s international role as a major power at sea, says centre director.
A study that asked children to assess three different robots showed that they responded most positively to simple robots shaped like flower pots, and were most sceptical of Pepper the robot, which looks more human.
Robot technology is being used more and more in health rehabilitation and in working life. Exoskeletons are one technology with great potential. But this technology is often developed for the average person. So what about people who are small and thin, or tall and overweight?
Robot technology is flourishing in multiple sectors of society, including the retail, health care, industry and education sectors. However, are the perspectives of minority groups, such as the LGBTQ+ community, considered in robot and AI development?
NTNU students have developed a smart glove for astronauts that can be used while exploring other planets. NASA partners recently conducted successful testing of the glove at the Haughton Mars Project research station.
Researcher Marita Skjuve has been interviewing people who have a close relationship with a chatbot called Replika. Her conclusion is that such relationships offer value and meaning to the chatbot’s users, and can even be romantic.
A small machining company in Norway is the first in the world to use digitalised tools for advanced turning. The technology enables the prevention of damage to complex and expensive parts used in the aircraft and gas industries.
“We may be a mere 20 years away from creating artificial life,” says Stephen Fry. He warns that these new life forms won’t see any need to keep us, and may instead look at us as pests.
Inspecting ship tanks and storage spaces underwater is a challenging task for humans. A start-up company that originated at NTNU is manufacturing autonomous drones that can take over the job – and do it more cheaply.
Blueye is an underwater drone that got its start at NTNU. The drone can be used for serious purposes – such as when it mapped damage to the Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad – or for entertainment, such as showing cruise passengers the underwater landscape.
How do you catch a drone flying at 70 km/h over a ship? With string.
Phytoplankton form the base of the marine food chain but are notoriously difficult for scientists to account for — a little like trying to identify and count motes of dust in the air. A truly independent underwater vehicle shows it can do the job.
Humans have developed machines that can learn on their own. Machines using artificial intelligence develop “behaviours” based on their interpretation of data. But we know less about how they teach themselves. Professor Harald Martens has created the start-up company Idletechs to develop a technology that will make artificial intelligence more understandable for the rest of us.
The electronic “sensor” fish measures the physical factors that affect farmed fish during delousing. The results may lead to welfare improvements in salmon farm cages.
A snake robot will soon be relieving divers and mini-subs in the North Sea. But first researchers have to test its mettle in the Trondheim Fjord.
An estimated three million shipwrecks lie in seabed graveyards around the world – with as many as 1000 of them around Svalbard. Each of them has their own unique story — one that’s made much more accessible with new technology.
An international team of researchers has recently succeeded in getting several autonomous vessels and underwater vehicles to communicate and work together as part of one and the same operation.
In order to maintain the leading position of Norwegian solar cell manufacture on the global stage, we need sensors that can see what humans can’t.
