Features

By George Galdorisi, Director of Strategic Assessments and Technical Futures at the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific

As advances in marine robotics continue to push operators towards the exciting paradigm shift of autonomous operations, the commercial market for multipurpose survey grade uncrewed vehicles and systems, such as USVs and AUVs, continues to expand.

Our ocean holds the key to producing clean, renewable energy. It can provide us with the abundant natural resources needed to vastly accelerate global decarbonization efforts. But we currently lack the critical seafloor data needed to unlock this potential within the time frames needed.

For ocean technology enthusiasts, there was only one place to be last month—ExCeL London for Oceanology International (Oi) 2022, from 15 – 17 March. Oi 2020 was one of the first major ocean tech conferences to fall foul to COVID-19, so this year’s return to in-person proceedings was eagerly anticipated, to say the least.

The offshore oil and gas industry has been investigating innovative solutions to help reduce or eliminate carbon footprints subsea and increase worker safety on- and offshore. Remote operations coupled with advanced autonomous solutions can have a significant impact on how business is conducted.

Why use a 90 m vessel for multiple surveys on a subsea pipeline when you can get the job done in a single pass, using a small electric powered remotely operated vehicle (eROV) launched from an uncrewed surface vessel (USV)? Depth of burial (DOB) inspections and surveys on pipelines are about to become faster, safer and more cost effective.