Page 55: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2015)

Products & Technologies as se C C C C C C C C C Ca as se e Stud Ca e Study dy y dy y

Venezuela Dam InspectionVenezuela Dam Inspection or inspection of its

Project Report vast Guri Dam and as-

Above: Guri

Companies involved in the project

Fsociated turbines, the

Dam, Ven-

Venezuelan Government has ezuela, one

Saab Seaeye of the largest chosen a Saab Seaeye Falcon reservoirs on

Symphotic TII

ROV ? tted with a special sur-

Earth.

MB Services vey system. Built in the 1960s

Imagenex and one of the largest reser-

Left: The capa-

Applied Acoustics voirs on earth, work is under- ble, adoptable

Lynn Falcon. way to extend the life of the dam by 30 years. Work in the (Photos: Saab Seaeye) hydro industry is not unusual for the Falcon ROV, as a Falcon was modi? ed to swim ? ve scribes how, by combining both systems on board the Falcon, km through a tunnel in Canada; a Falcon ? tted with a full scanned images remain stable while the ROV swims around sonar system on a retractable device was used to inspect inlets in any rotation. and outlets, grids and tunnels at a major Italian dam; a Falcon “This particular set-up has never before been adopted for was sent to inspect 96 km of tunnels under the city of Buenos a Falcon and has the added advantage of being simple to in-

Aires; and a Falcon was employed to help position a 75-ton tegrate in the ? eld at the kind of remote location found at a inlet structure to mm accuracy at a lake in Nevada, U.S. hydro installation.”

For a detailed survey of the infrastructure at Guri Dam, He describes how the multi-frequency programmable sonar authorities have chosen to ? t a sonar and navigation system makes it easier for the operator by providing a more stable on their Falcon formulated by California-based underwater view of the environment, while the ultra short baseline posi- systems supplier Symphotic TII Corporation along with MB tioning system readily allows the vehicle to return to points

Services in Miami that incorporates an Imagenex 881A-GS of particular interest. Also, by ? tting the Falcon with a Lyyn sonar with an Applied Acoustic’s Easytrak positional location real-time video enhancement system that self-optimizes the system. image at 25 times a second, clearer pictures can be captured

Explaining the concept, Jack Roberts at Symphotic de- than would otherwise be possible. www.marinetechnologynews.com

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