Page 48: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Jan/Feb 2020)

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FEATURE ROVs

How do you then prioritize bandwidth and ensure data human in the loop? Steffan Lindsø, Director of Emerging security? How does this work commercially; there may even Technology, Europe, at Oceaneering, told the same event, be fees for a vehicle to dock and charge at different docking “It’s not technology development that’s lagging behind, it’s stations, he suggests. Answer these questions and “then you the commercial development to exploit it. The struggle is can have the Uber AUV and high utilization because you ? nding commercial value.” Some ? elds might not be dense can switch from one mission to another and between com- enough for a resident system to make sense. But, when you panies,” says Torvestad. “Just imagine if we have suf? cient look at maps of ? elds in an area there is density but the number of operators one the NCS (using drones) where we ? elds are run by many different operators, he says. “This get a critical mass and manage standardisation mechanically, would make a lot of sense if it was shared with everyone,” electrically and in IT.” That’s assuming that everyone is hap- he says. For inspecting dense offshore wind farm infra- py to go along with the same standardised docking stations. structure, it could also make sense, he says. But, “mindsets

Even then, will the commercial models work? Success needs to change on how to do things and cost drivers.” of this concept could result in some signi? cant changes There are also other approaches that could be taken. in how subsea operations are done. “We are on the edge While Rounce was keen to promote the advancement of of some really big changes in our industry,” said Stephen subsea vehicles, his company has also been embedding ro-

Gray, CEO at UK based ROV services ? rm ROVOP, dur- botics – or more speci? cally mechatronics – into subsea ing Subsea UK’s Underwater Robotics conference in Ab- infrastructure. In August 2018, TechnipFMC, which took erdeen. Gray suggests that the change will re? ect a change over manipulator and ROV manufacturer Schilling Robot- that’s already happened in other industries, such as tele- ics through its acquisition of FMC Technologies in 2017, communications (think mobile phones and what hap- installed a compact robotic manifold in Brazilian four slot pened to Nokia when Apple came out of nowhere). water alternating gas manifold. A robotic arm was later in-

Which leaves further questions. Jim Jamieson, Strategy stalled. It can operate 30 valves (that would otherwise each and Technology, Development Manager i-Tech 7, com- need an actuator) and can do 30,000 cycles, says Rounce. mented at the Underwater Robotics event that, with in- The robotic arm was operated for four to ? ve months with- creasing automation, who carries the risk of any damage done by these vehicles and when do you need, or not, a

An ‘open standard’ subsea docking station.

Source: Blue Logic 48 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM