Page 24: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2024)

AUTONOMY SUBSEA SURVEYS he deeper you go, the quieter the ocean be- ing this is to exploit the quiet ocean ? oor to enable his Oce- comes. It’s something that Kyrre Tjøm is anid OBNs to communicate with others in the swarm and exploiting in his back-to-basics approach to with the ship, using acoustics. This is facilitated by having ocean bottom nodes (OBNs). Like his com- upright OBNs that aren’t obstructed by sea? oor topology. petitors, the CEO and Founder of iDROP, is OBN-to-OBN communication is used for navigation and,

T developing autonomous OBNs that can de- as a swarm, to produce relatively small but high resolution ploy themselves on to the seabed without ROV support. seismic datasets. In the future, it will enable the swarm to

The current method for laying the nodes, which catch re- report back to the launching vessel even if the vessel has ? ected waves during seismic surveys, involves specialist ves- moved beyond the reach of an individual OBN.

sels and specialist crews. It only takes one member of the team The OBNs are designed to glide to the sea? oor without to fall sick to disrupt an entire survey schedule, says Tjøm. the need for ROV help or DP-positioning mother vessels.

That’s how in-demand the expertise is. As part of their patented autonomy, the OBN’s will use

He has caught the attention of Woodside, ExxonMobil and ? ight data to create a current pro? le as they traverse the others. Unlike his competitors, Tjøm is avoiding high-tech water column at a prede? ned heading, constantly adjusting complexity above and below the surface. One way he is do- angle of attack to create the required lift to navigate au-

Ocean In? nity’s Armada surface robot vessels only require a skeleton crew because data processing and payload control is conducted from onshore operations centers.

Source: Ocean In? nity 24 May/June 2024

MTR #4 (18-33).indd 24 5/29/2024 9:49:20 PM