AUV Pioneer Receives MTS 2014 Compass Distinguished Achievement Award

Bjørn Jalving, executive vice president Subsea at Kongsberg Maritime (Norway) has been given the Compass Distinguished Achievement Award from the Marine Technology Society. The award ceremony took place on 16 September 2014 at the OCEANS 2014 MTS/IEEE conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. This award is presented to an individual whose work has had significant impact on the fields of marine science and technology.

Bjørn Jalving was selected for the award because of his long career and significant achievements within AUV technology. After graduating as M.Sc. in Engineering Cybernetics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1991, Bjørn started at FFI (the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment) in 1992, where he worked on the development of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), in projects with Kongsberg Maritime, the Norwegian Navy, Statoil and NUI.

Bjørn developed the control and mission management system, and was heavily involved in system design of Kongsberg Maritime’s HUGIN AUV, which is today widely regarded as the de facto industry standard AUV family. He has played a key role in applying and verifying the use of AUVs in new applications such as detailed seabed mapping, naval mine hunting (MCM) and marine research.

Bjørn was responsible for the team that designed and implemented the HUGIN aided inertial navigation system. In 2000, a HUGIN 3000 from C & C Technologies, the world’s first detailed seabed mapping AUV operating on a commercial basis in deep waters for the oil and gas industry, provided consistent  position accuracies of 2m and 4m at depths of 1,300m and 2,200m in the Gulf of Mexico. This navigation technology has also been applied in Kongsberg Maritime’s HAIN system for ROV navigation and dynamic position vessel reference.

During his 14 years at FFI, moving to the position of Principal Scientist, Bjørn Jalving published and co-authored more than 30 publications. In 2006 he joined Kongsberg Maritime, and in 2007 he became Vice President of the AUV department. Bjørn was involved in the KONGSBERG acquisition of Hydroid, the manufacturer of the renowned REMUS AUV product lines. From 2012 Bjørn became Executive Vice President of the Subsea Division in Kongsberg Maritime.