Page 651 - The ROV Manual - A User Guide for Remotely Operated Vehicles 2nd edition
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652 CHAPTER 23 The Future of ROV Technology
FIGURE 23.8
Marlin 3D sonar survey of offshore structure.
color inspection video cameras, profiling sonar, and a downward-looking camera. It can use acoustic, WiFi, and satellite communications (Figure 23.9).
With today’s ability to process visual and acoustic data for creating 3D rendering/modeling, there is a great potential for AUV use offshore. However, many of the platforms and installations provide a cluttered environment when it comes to underwater navigation using any type of acoustic system, especially when operating within the structure itself. An old technology that is being reas- sessed for use underwater is radio frequency (RF) communications. WFS Technologies (Edinburgh, Scotland) has developed underwater equipment for wireless communications, TV transmission, and power transfer. The range is limited when compared to the capabilities of acoustic modems, but the problem with acoustics in a cluttered environment is eliminated. Communications capabilities include short-range broadband at 25156 kbps at 48 m up to longer range, low bandwidth of 10 bps8 kbps at 1030 m. Such techniques will be useful throughout the oilfield (Figure 23.10). Table 23.1 compares the various technologies for underwater communications.
Although such environments are cluttered, they are well known. And with today’s ability to pro- cess optical and/or sonar images, AUVs will eventually be able to orient themselves within their working environment by referring to their knowledge base that can include the structural design of the installation being inspected. If land-based robots can maneuver within an environment using optical feedback to their onboard computer, then it is only a matter of time when the same can be performed offshore.
Conducting surveys of and around an offshore platform is only one minor part of the equation. Today’s offshore oilfields are complex with wells and pipelines covering vast areas of the seafloor. Future installations will become deeper, more remote, and eventually under the Arctic ice. Once again, considering the cost of using a support vessel with an ROV to perform such routine
(Courtesy Lockheed Martin.)
