Page 36: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2019)

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FEATURE Subsea Vehicles still some work to do here, he says. “This year we are focusing on control, obstacle avoidance,

Next into the water will be Oceaneering’s Freedom ve- object recognition, and things like that. Docking will come hicle. Oceaneering says that the 3.3-meter-long completely and we will be able to dock with the docking station that new design vehicle will be able to perform inspection, ad- Equinor has developed, and we will be using that for dock- vanced survey and light intervention work, autonomously ing testing in Trondheim,” says Iversen. Equinor’s dock- (out to 50 kilometers without a tether or 250 meters with a ing station is a standardized solution, also using inductive tether) or under remote control, using a modular design that connectors, which it wants all subsea vehicles that it might means it can be con? gured for the mission it’s required for. want to use to be able to dock in to. “We think a standard-

This will comprise a common center section with ends that ized docking station is the way forward,” says Iversen. “The can be interchanged. Freedom has a carbon ? ber outer body, business case is dif? cult if everyone is going to have their providing strength and encasing its buoyancy, instead of the own.” Iversen says with just 17 docking stations, the entire traditional skeleton type structure of ROVs. Norwegian continental shelf could be covered by Freedom,

A prototype is being built in the US, ready to go on show at due to its range. the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, says Arve There are more hybrid AUV projects in the pipeline, in-

Iversen, ROV Operations Manager Special Projects at Ocea- cluding FlatFish, a resident autonomous vehicle which neering. After that, it will be shipped to Norway for testing Shell licensed Saipem to develop last year and is expected in Trondheim fjord. Meanwhile a test vehicle has been built to be quali? ed for commercial application by 2020. Saipem in Norway so that the control system and autonomy soft- also has its Hydrone family of vehicles. Meanwhile, back ware, being developed with help from the Norwegian Uni- in Trondheim, technology spin-out Eelume is set to test its versity of Science and Technology (NTNU), can be tested. latest 20-centimeter-diameter snake robot, EELY500, which

Saab Seaeye’s Sabretooth (to the right, docking) has been fitted with a Blue Logic connector and proven inductive data and charging with it in its test tank (below).

Photos: Saab Seaeye 36 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM 32-49 OE 2019.indd 36 4/15/2019 10:54:47 AM