Page 35: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2019)

XOCEAN’s

XO-450 operating offshore.

Photo: XOCEAN e Horizon

CHANGING

THE WAY with con? dence. bene? ts, but he’s not complacent about

THE WORLD

While the trip made headlines such the challenges, particularly those asso- as “The world’s your oyster”, there ciated with working over the horizon,

WORKS have been more practical advances when line-of-sight and radio commu- in the use of USVs in the UK sector nications are lost. Speaking at a The

AT SEA of the North Sea. UK-based energy Hydrographic Society in Scotland ? rm BP has been taking a lead in meeting in Aberdeen, earlier this year, this space. BP, which has a vision to he said: “There are challenges associ-

Iver4: The next achieve 100% of underwater inspec- ated with over the horizon operations, generation UUV tion by marine autonomous systems which is one of key de? ning factors of (MAS) by 2025, has been deploying functionality that needs to be built in

L3HARRIS.COM

USVs for data harvesting and pipeline to USVs to make them commercially inspection. viable. It’s the biggest challenge they

Eric Primeau, a Senior Technology face. Technically, the rest of it’s there.”

Specialist for BP, is clear that there are There are challenges around insur- www.marinetechnologynews.com

MTR #7 (34-49).indd 35 9/3/2019 8:42:20 AM