KONGSBERG K-Nav Navigation Product Series

KONGSBERG K-Nav Navigation Product Series

Modern navigation relies on highly integrated, precise, and reliable navigation systems. With the continuous improvement of the requirements for ship navigation safety by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), especially the mandatory provisions for navigation equipment and data recording systems in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), ship operators have put forward higher requirements for the performance, compliance, and long-term maintainability of navigation systems.

Kongsberg Maritime, as a leading global provider of marine technology solutions, has launched the K-NAV series of navigation products designed to meet the high standards of the SOLAS market. These products integrate advanced human factors engineering design, modular system architecture, and a global service support system, providing comprehensive navigation safety assurance for modern ships.

Corporate philosophy and customer orientation

Kongsberg's success stems from a profound understanding of customer needs. The company adheres to the core concept of "customer success is our success". By actively listening to customer feedback and transforming it into practical technical solutions, the K-NAV series products not only meet basic navigation function requirements, but also achieve breakthroughs in operational efficiency, system reliability, and decision support.

KONGSBERG's global team is committed to providing every customer with "The Full Picture" - comprehensive, clear, and real-time navigation situational awareness - by sharing professional knowledge and values. This concept runs through the entire process of product design, system integration, and after-sales support, ensuring that customers always maintain a leading position in the fierce market competition.

K-NAV System Technical Architecture

The design of K-NAV series products fully considers the operational requirements in practical use scenarios. Developed with the joint participation of professional sailors and human factors experts, ensuring an intuitive interface and convenient operation, capable of supporting sailors in making critical decisions in complex environments.

In terms of system integration, K-NAV adopts a traditional sensor interface scheme, based on serial connections to achieve data transmission between various sensors and operation stations. Through standardized sensor configuration and dedicated port design, the system can efficiently complete installation and debugging, reducing the complexity of system integration.

Radar signal processing is one of the core technologies of the K-NAV system. The radar signal is converted from analog signal to digital signal through the radar interface unit (RIN) at the transmitting and receiving antenna end, and transmitted to the display unit through high-speed network. Video processing (including target tracking and filtering) is completed on the local display unit, giving the operator full control over the display screen.

In addition, the system supports cross switching of radar signals, allowing multiple display units to access radar data from any antenna, greatly enhancing the system's fault tolerance. For large ships or scenes with blind spots, K-NAV supports the synthesis and display of video signals from up to four radars, forming a complete radar image and achieving automatic target tracking across radar boundaries.

K-NAV radar: high-performance target detection and tracking

The K-NAV radar display unit is a type approved radar/ARPA (Automatic Radar Plotter) device that supports overlaying official electronic navigation charts as base maps on radar video screens.

The raw radar data is processed locally by the display unit, and operators can adjust the filtering parameters in real time according to sea conditions and navigation requirements to ensure clear and reliable radar echoes. The system supports automatic tracking of up to 100 targets and can simultaneously display AIS (Automatic Identification System) target information. When the radar target overlaps with the AIS target, the system will automatically perform "association" processing and merge them into one target with a unique identifier to avoid operators misjudging them as two ships.

The radar transceiver offers two options, X-band and S-band, which are suitable for different navigation environments and detection requirements:

X-band (3cm): Suitable for high-resolution detection, with antenna sizes of 6 or 8 feet and power options of 10 kW or 25 kW.

S-band (10cm): suitable for detection under adverse weather conditions, with an antenna size of 12 feet and a power of 30 kW.

K-NAV ECDIS: Electronic Chart Display and Information System

K-NAV ECDIS is the core platform for ship route monitoring and planning. The system can monitor the deviation between the ship's position and the scheduled route in real time, and support route definition and verification on ECDIS local or K-NAV planning stations.

K-NAV ECDIS supports radar video overlay function, which can display the selected radar's video signal, ARPA target, and AIS information in real-time on the nautical chart, enhancing the ability to perceive navigation situation. The system also supports the "Active Lights" function, which displays the status of the lights in real-time; And can access Navtex information, automatically prompting when the ship enters the relevant area.