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capacity. It placed a shore-wired manager for Battelle. ‘AUVs are docking station on the bottom of often deployed [and retrieved]

Broad Sound in Boston Harbor and daily. If that could become weekly used it to recharge and collect data or monthly, there’s a lot less launch from a battery-powered Bluefn-12 and recovery involved.’ sub after an eight-hour survey Total has been working for six mission. years to develop its Swimmer

Underwater Vehicles

Underwater Vehicles ‘We know that AUVs can do (Subsea Works Inspection and certain jobs today. We believe AUVs Maintenance with Minimum can do more in the future. The Environment ROV) system, an AUV challenge is how do we get there,’ piggybacking its own tethered ROV says Omer Poroy, VP of business and operating from more than one development for Bluefn, which has docking station, with stations miles delivered more than 80 vehicles. apart.

SAAB’s Seaeye unit is working It could stay submerged for three with Aker Solutions on a seafoor months, roaming from station to docking station, where an AUV station subsea, operating in docked could park and recharge its mode or as a free-fyer, sending its batteries by induction, as does a tethered ROV out as much as 200m battery-powered toothbrush. It will to perform inspections and light communicate by close-proximity tasks such as turning valves.

wireless link, possibly optical or Herve de Narois, deep offshore radio, while berthed, says Chris manager at Total E&P Research &

Roper, North American sales Technology USA, says he hopes manager for SAAB Seaeye. for initial deployment of Swimmer off Angola next year with full

Underwater communication commercialization of the system by

Woods Hole Oceanographic 2018. ‘Costs are higher and higher

Institution is working to for deeper environments, and we advance wireless underwater have more mature felds, which communication, exploring acoustic means you have to have more and optical technologies and is frequent intervention,’ Narois says.

‘looking for partners who can Hard-wired electric power and help bring the technology into fber optic links are already being use,’ says Andy Bowen, director installed to serve the Lower Tertiary of the institution’s national deep plays in the Gulf of Mexico. These submergence facility. networks could clear the way to Others are working on advanced add subsea AUV docking stations radio communication. The to deepwater installations, says Carl challenge for all the modes is Barrett, project manager for simple physics: acoustic, optical 3U Technologies. and radio waves do not yet travel ‘I don’t think it’s that much of a

Pre-programmed mission far enough with wide-enough stretch’ to envision adding subsea for decommissioning survey bandwidth underwater to meet communications interfaces to link

Chevron needed to survey offshore oil industry needs. AUVs to remote operators, he says. 14 sites in the Gulf of Mexico, most of SAAB’s Sabertooth system Plug-in power stations are also a which were slated for decommissioning, is designed to stay submerged possibility to provide long duration so it hired Lockheed Martin to deploy for up to a year and be capable high-power AUV operations its new Marlin AUV to assist. Chevron of operation in three modes: onsite. They are simply ‘add-ons’ subsea survey engineer Olugbena autonomous, operator-assisted and to the power and communications

Esan and Lou Dennis, Lockheed Martin manual, a fexibility that might ease networks that are being installed business development manager, talked the transition to AUV technology. anyway, Barrett says.

about the project at the Subsea Survey

The docking station would stay in Statoil’s drive to develop AUVs

IRM 2012 conference.

place for fve years, Roper says. stalled with the shelving of the During two weeks last July and ‘Leaving it down there all the Shtokman project in the Barents

August, Marlin surveyed 11 platforms time is not a bad idea,’ says Robert Sea, but the company is taking other and surrounding seafoor to a radius of

Geoghegan, undersea systems steps to improve output > overleaf

OE | January 2013 oedigital.com 64 oe_AUVs3.indd 64 03/01/2013 15:14