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Meet Håvard Nordahl, the technical coordinator of SEAMLESS, a senior research scientist at SINTEF Ocean, who brings years of experience from the offshore industry and maritime simulation to lead Work Package 7: Demonstrator and Validation Campaign.

This work package is at the heart of SEAMLESS, transforming the project’s innovations into real-world demonstrations. It focuses on planning and executing two full-scale pilots: one in short sea shipping with ASKO vessels, and one in inland waterways with ZULU Associates’ X-barge. The demonstrations will showcase cutting-edge technologies like autonomous operations, remote operation centres, smart port management, and digital logistics platforms (ModalNET and VCOP), developed by key SEAMLESS partners.

The main goal? Successfully complete both demonstrations by 2026, validate the SEAMLESS concept, and create real impact through live events and demonstration videos.

A major milestone has already been achieved: defining the full scope and ambition of the demos, engaging with external actors, and setting the path for integration and testing.

Close collaboration across multiple work packages has been essential—SEAMLESS WP7 brings together the results of work on autonomous port operations, fleet operations, and logistics digitalisation into one unified showcase.

Discover more by reading Håvard’s interview!

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Brief Introduction

Can you briefly introduce yourself and your role in the SEAMLESS project?

I am a senior research scientist at SINTEF Ocean, where I mainly work on autonomous ship projects. I’ve been a researcher since 2017, but before that I worked for about four years in the offshore industry where I led engineering teams doing EPCM (engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance) projects for an oil platform, and about five years doing simulation-based testing of maritime control systems, first as engineer and then as project manager. In SEAMLESS I am the technical coordinator of the project, and leader of work package 7: Demonstrator and Validation Campaign.

Overview of Work Package

Could you provide an overview of your work package’s objectives and its importance within the SEAMLESS project?

The work package objectives are to develop the demonstration and validation plans for SEAMLESS, to perform testing and integration of individual SEAMLESS technologies and subsystems, to execute the SEAMLESS full-scale demonstrations and produce results for validating the concept. More details about the SEAMLESS concept and systems are available in the report: SEAMLESS_D2.3 – Concept of Operations and requirements for SEAMLESS Building blocks. The plan is to have one full-scale shortsea demonstration and one full-scale inland waterways demonstration. The shortsea demonstration will be with the ASKO vessels Marit and Therese. We will demonstrate that these can operate autonomously, supported by one ROC team to validate autonomous fleet operations, enabled by technologies developed by the partner Kongsberg Maritime. In addition, the logistics systems ModalNET by Fundación Valenciaport and Vessel Container Optimization Platform (VCOP) by MacGregor will be interfaced to existing systems in the supply chain to validate digitalization of logistics. Finally, the autonomous cargo crane developed by MacGregor will be validated through a simulator-based demonstration. The second demonstration will be in inland waterways using the X-barge by Zulu Associates, where the AWAKE.AI Autonomous Vessels’ Smart Port Manager (AVSPM) and the Auto-mooring system by MacGregor will be demonstrated at the Port of Antwerp Bruge. In addition, we will demonstrate the integration of ModalNET and VCOP to logistic systems, which is also targeted for demonstration at Duisport.

Goals and Targets

What are the main goals of your work package? Are there any specific targets or milestones you aimed to achieve?

The main goal is to successfully complete the two demonstrations in 2026 (the Demonstration Fire milestone), along with events showing parts of the demonstrations live and videos of the full demonstration scope. Of course there are several steps on the way, and the subsystem and integration testing milestone Demonstration Flame is the first milestone to be achieved.

Key Achievements

What are the key achievements of your work package so far?

So far, the key achievement has been to define the overall ambition and plan for the demonstrations. This includes what functionality defined in the D2.3 report will be demonstrated, where do we demonstrate what functionality, what scenarios do we base the demonstrations on, and what actors external to the project need to be involved? This includes having established an active dialogue with the external parties that we must interface or interact with during the demonstrations.

Collaboration

How did you collaborate with other work packages? What has been the impact of this collaboration?

This work package is in many ways the culmination of the development in work packages 3: Enabling Autonomous port operations, 4: Activating Autonomous fleet operations and 5: Digitalising logistics operations. It is the outcome of these work packages that will be demonstrated. In addition, work package 2: Redesigning Logistics, laid out the ground for the demonstration use cases by analyzing logistics and providing the SEAMLESS concept and requirement specifications. Close collaboration with these work packages, and taking their results as input, has been and continues to be key for developing the demonstration plans.

Future Plans

What are the next steps for your work package? Are there any upcoming activities or developments you’re particularly excited about?

The next step is that subsystem and integration testing will start this year. This will continue until next year to get the systems and their integration ready for the demonstrations. In addition, making firm agreements with the project external actors, testing integration with their systems, and detailing the responsibility divisions between SEAMLESS and external systems. Then, the planning of practicalities will intensify later this year. This includes transport and installation of equipment, storyboarding of the demonstration videos to define what needs to be filmed, having the right people in place at the right times, and making arrangements for the demonstration events.

Lessons Learned

What are some key lessons you’ve learned throughout the process? How might these lessons be applied to future projects or initiatives?

I already had experience on system integration, but integrating prototypes or newly developed systems, at different maturity levels, not only in a lab setting but to operational systems, is very challenging. From understanding each system, to agreeing on where the line is drawn in terms of “who-does-what”. It is a lengthy process, where clear communication is needed. So, getting started early with drafting documentation, system and architecture drawings, has been key to ensure alignment and progress towards the same goal. A very nice surprise has been to see the high interest and willingness to share information and to cooperate by the non-project partners that will (or might) take part in the demonstrations. This includes two technology providers in Norway, a Franch port, and a Dutch container transport service provider. I guess the lesson is that the industry is in general interested in making improvements, and that approaching them with openness and sharing your intents as well as sufficient details about what you are doing, seems to be a good way to open doors. Having partners with established relations is of course also a key to getting the dialogue started in the first place.

Final Thoughts

Is there anything else you would like to share about your work package or the SEAMLESS project in general?

I am very excited about being part of this ambitious project. We are making important contributions to the development of autonomous ships, digitalized and automated logistics, and automated cargo handling. All of which will be important for making waterborne transport more efficient and competitive. Transport is key to sustaining our way of life, and there could be no cities without it. But transport comes at tremendous societal costs, including accidents and harm to human health, climate emissions and environmental pollution, habitat damage, and road congestion. Waterborne transport cannot reach all origins and destinations of cargo, but there are still significant transport volumes that could be transported by waterways and where that would significantly reduce the related societal costs. The opportunity to make a difference on this is what motivates me.