Louis Dreyfus Travocean Order Two Saab Seaeye Leopards

Specialist submarine cable installation company, Louis Dreyfus TravOcean, has ordered two Saab Seaeye Leopards for touchdown monitoring and support.

Long established experts in laying and protecting submarine cable, Louis Dreyfus TravOcean provide turnkey installations worldwide and are specialists in the design and construction of trenching equipment.

The pioneering Leopard work vehicle, with its eleven thrusters and iCON intelligent control system will provide TravOcean with a stable work platform that is unrivalled amongst ROVs – particularly in strong currents.

The Seaeye Leopard, ideal for touchdown monitoring operations.

Greater flight stability under variable loads is delivered by the iCON system - including pitch and roll stabilisation – to give stable flight even with large tools and sensors deployed.

ICON independently manages each device on the vehicle, including auto redundancy to keep the ROV working even with multiple equipment damage.

Effectively, the Leopard thinks for itself, leaving the operator free to concentrate on the task at hand.

This independent control comes from relocating the brains of the system into sensors and actuators around the vehicle - having refined the main electronics into an intelligent power distribution and data hub. The user also gets greater information and maintenance is far simpler and quicker.

Free from centralised electronics, the Leopard’s distributed intelligence allows for systems to be changed or added without the need to partially dismantle the vehicle. It also offers building-block simplicity for system reconfiguration, along with remote internet access for upgrades and support.

The chassis has been designed with rapid reconfiguration and easy maintenance in mind. A large open payload bay within the vehicle allows for ample tooling and survey sensors to be installed rapidly on sliding trays.

Its one tonne through-frame lift capability and four point docking system for tooling skids allows more demanding payloads to be added.

Users of the Leopard work ROV report being impressed by its work capabilities and compare it favourably to hydraulic work vehicles. The inspiration behind the concept, says Saab Seaeye, was to produce a vehicle able to undertake the widest possible range of work tasks, in the most diverse environments, at the lowest cost of ownership.