Page 38: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2018)

Image: Elaine Maslin on feature-based identi? cation for navigation, enhanced sta-

Freedom tion keeping, remote control from an unmanned surface vessel

One of the latest concepts to emerge on the market is Ocea- (ASV) and also to demonstrate and commercialize 3D terrain neering’s Freedom. Oceaneering says that the 3.3m-long ve- navigation and 3D object recognition. To this will be added hicle will be able to perform inspection, advanced survey, and 3D mapping and 3D vision capability, to enhance tracking/ light intervention work, under a modular design. navigation capability, position estimation, stereo vision and

This will mean it can be con? gured for the mission it’s re- the ability to compute distances to objects, says Erkers. quired for.

For long-term resident capability, Saab Seaeye is planning “Freedom will be autonomous or with real-time control op- to add recharging and data upload/download capabilities and eration,” says Arve Iversen, ROV Operations Manager, Ocea- then carry out long-term testing and a reliability enhancement neering, during Subsea Valley. “It will be free swimming or program. tethered, long-range and with the possibly of being resident

Saab Seaeye is also developing its own electrical manipula- for long periods of time.” tor, equivalent in size and power to an industry standard work

Freedom will have a common center section, housing system class ROV manipulator, such as the Schilling T4. Prototype components that will support four different vehicle con? gura- joint testing was carried out late last year and it is due to be tions: inspection and light intervention; towed, long range sur- launched to the market in Q4 2018. Saab is also looking at vey and long-range inspection. The different con? gurations other electric tooling. are created by switching out the vehicles nose and aft sections. “Sabertooth is not a work class ROV,” Erkers says. “It’s an

The vehicle will also have access to a suite of intervention

AUV that has capabilities other AUVs do not have. It is not tooling, stored subsea. easy to develop this type of system. In 2015, Saab Seaeye

As a resident vehicle, Freedom will operate out of one or demonstrated that it had everything needed to have autono- more docking stations, which provide power for recharging, mous behaviour – auto-docking, station keeping, 3D terrain tooling, and data upload and download. This will be in a frame, navigation. Eni Cleansea is 10 years ahead of Statoil.” sitting on a subsea base (suction anchor), which contains a

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