Page 59: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2023)

Courtesy Balmoral

Balmoral unveiled a new scour protection system that inte- have the tools or the variety of ‘stuff’ we needed,” recalls grates seabed protection and ? ow reduction to minimize op- Günzel, “but we had a 3D printer and our know-how.” With erational costs and potential cable failure in the offshore wind the vision of designing and building a modular, scalable and industry. The HexDefense structure eliminates the require- transformable family of vehicles for work on and below the ment to dump rock, instead providing a non-invasive approach waters, Framework Robotics was off to the races, investing to protecting the monopile and the immediate surrounding “thousands of hours” in designing and building its ? rst pro- area. The light-weight advanced composites construction and totype. “We wanted to build a platform for different solutions streamlined installation method makes it easy to install with- and different missions. Emerging from the basement, Frame- out the need for additional vessels. Additionally, the system is work Robotics today employs 13, with plans to offer its ? rst capable of use with antifouling coatings and does not require market-? t ROV by the middle of 2023. special equipment for end-of-life recovery. The interlocking Today Framework Robotics already has a broad palette of panels are generally 10m long and custom-sized to ? t varying products in the works, all built on the modular/recon? gurable/ monopile diameters and feature integrated lifting and access scalable mandate, and including: points. The installation process involves sinking the founda- • Companion, a Remotely Operated Towed Underwater tion, sleeving it with HexDefence, ? tting the transition piece Vehicle (ROTV) and assembling the pylon and blades. • Buddy, a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) • Scout, an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)

Framework Robotics was founded in 2020 in Rostock in • Tracker, a Remotely Operated Crawling Vehicle (ROCV)

Germany when Nico Günzel and his colleagues do what in- The ROTV is on the market as of 2022, and recently, Günzel novators in the subsea space do: they take their knowledge shared that the company has its ? rst pilot customer for Com- and experience, envision a better way to explore the world’s panion. The ROV Buddy, which is built with a 1000m depth waterways, and start a company, literally in a basement. “We rating, with an optional 6000m depth rating, debuted at Ocean didn’t have a lot of money for the ? rst prototype, we didn’t Business 2023 in the test tank. Günzel said that still today 95% www.marinetechnologynews.com 59

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