The next generation of subsea robots

An ROV is a remotely operated underwater vehicle, also sometimes known as an underwater drone or underwater robot.

ROVs can explore the subsea world while the operator, commonly known as the pilot, remains comfortably at the surface.

The communication between the operator and the vehicle is controlled by an umbilical/tether cable.

The main purpose of the cables is the transmission of power, signal, communication and tensile loads to a remote location.

The first ROV ever built was the Poodle made in 1953 by Dimitri Rebikoff, a French pioneer in dive equipment and photography. The Poodle was an unmanned adaptation of his dive scooter with a tether and surface controls.

The US Navy started using ROVs back in the 1960s for recovery of underwater equipment and continued to advance the technology.

By the 1980s there were more than 500 ROVs around the world, many of them being used in commercial applications.

Since then, ROVs have become common in a wide range of industries and there are tens of thousands of ROVs in use around the world.

ROVs come in all shapes and sizes and there are countless ways to use these underwater robots.

They vary in size from that of a bread box to a large van. The functions ROVs perform can range from simply carrying a camera to observe subsea environments to housing multiple manipulator arms to perform numerous functions subsea.

The most common commercial application for ROVs is for underwater inspection and work.

Large ROVs, or the work class ROVs (WROVs), are used for many difficult tasks in the offshore oil and gas and offshore wind industries while smaller ROVs are used in a wide range of industries including aquaculture, infrastructure inspection, water tank inspection, ship hull inspection, pipe inspection, wastewater treatment inspection, commercial diving, and more.

There are many ROV manufacturers, Oceaneering, Soil Machine Dynamics, Saab Seaeye, Forum Energy Technologies, ECA Group, IKM to name a few.

Throughout the years they have stepped up their game to advance these underwater drones, make them go deeper, become more environmentally friendly and improve efficiencies.

To get to the point, the ROV moves by multiple electrically or hydraulically powered propellers known as thrusters.

While observation-class ROVs are maneuvered by electric thrusters, ultra deep heavy work class ROVs mostly relied on hydraulics in the past.

However, in the last few years we have observed subsea industry transition to more sustainable solutions, which included boosting development of electrically-powered WROVs.

Today, we have a few of these so-called electric work-class ROVs on the market and we will take a closer look at some of them and what the manufacturers are doing to take them to the next level.

The companies have invested extensive research and development resources to evaluate the benefits of electric thrusters for work-class ROV.

The main driving force behind the desire to utilise electric thrusters is to eliminate the piping losses that are inherent to hydraulic systems.

Some argue that the drawbacks of utilizing electric thrusters does not outweigh this potential gain in efficiency.

A common argument for utilising electric thrusters is that they are more environmentally friendly.

Namely, petroleum based hydraulic fluids are harmful if released into the environment.

However, even ROVs employing electric thrusters, contain large volumes of hydraulic fluid.

Some manufacturers claim that the safest approach to environmental protection is prevention and using environmentally friendly hydraulic fluids, while some are going for all-electric solutions, including manipulator arms.

One other advantage, when going electric is the way, is subsea residency.

Companies such as IKM Subsea, Oceaneering and Saipem have all worked on delivering ROV technology as a permanent subsea infrastructure for Life of Field management services.

New generation remotely operated vehicles that live at sea could reduce the need for specialist vessels.

And no, the above mentioned are not the only ones developing these solutions so don’t feel neglected.

Norway-based IKM Subsea has been taking a step-wise approach to resident subsea systems.

After building its first all-electric remote operated vehicles (ROVs) in 2015, the company has gone on to introduce a subsea garage system from which their vehicles can operate.

Having vehicles based subsea has a number of benefits that more and more operators are seeing. As resident systems, deployed permanently, or semi-permanently subsea, vehicles can be on site, ready for action, 24/7, supported from onshore – reducing cost and increasing safety, operability, and productivity.

IKM Subsea’s resident ROV (R-ROV) concept is based on the firm’s 3,000 m-rated Merlin UCV ROV, which operates on a 1,000 metre excursion capable tether management system (TMS) from a subsea “E-cage” wired to a host platform

Since late 2018, one of these systems has been operating on the seabed at operator Equinor’s Snorre B facility, offshore Norway. It’s available on demand, piloted from offshore and onshore (via a fiber optic link to the beach), on three-month long deployments.

The transformation in the ROV world is taking place. Some are looking to remove the tether to extend the survey work.

Without a tether a vehicle travels further between nodes where it could recharge or transfer data.

The Hydrone program, executed entirely by Sonsub, Saipem’s business line for Life of Field, Underwater Technology and Subsea Processing, is a key workstream of Saipem’s technology development plan associated with subsea robotics.

The Hydrone was born as an evolution of the Innovator 2.0 ROV system.

In 2016, Saipem completed sea trials of the Innovator 2 heavy work class ROV after three years of design and testing.

The new Hydrone system expands the ROV by integrating AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) functionalities and new automation features, suitable to perform inspection and light intervention operations for long time, without support vessel.

It consists of the Hydrone-S, an advanced AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle), a hybrid vehicle (ROV/AUV) resident on the sea bottom (Hydrone-R) and a resident all-electric work class ROV system (Hydrone-W).

In October last year, Saipem and Equinor signed the first ever worldwide service contract for Hydrone-R and Hydrone-W subsea drones in the offshore Oil & Gas industry.

Both Hydrones will operate in the Njord Field development with minimal environmental impact conforming with Equinor and Saipem’s commitment to green technologies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fzy-CieWWM

The E-ROV system is Oceaneering’s self-contained, battery-powered remotely operated vehicle system capable of operating for extended periods of time without being recovered to surface.

It is based around an eNovus work-class ROV with modified battery technology optimised to handle peak power consumption launched from a subsea garage that includes a cage-mounted 100-kW battery pack and tether management system.

The E-ROV system is capable of performing common ROV tasks including inspection, valve operation, torque tool operation, and manipulator-related activities.

The system interfaces with the Oceaneering onshore Mission Support Center via a 4G mobile broadband signal transmitted from a buoy on the water’s surface and eliminates the requirement for a surface vessel onsite.

Norway’s Equinorn has already tapped into Oceaneering’s E-ROV system for subsea inspection, maintenance and repair activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

When we look at ROV manufacturers, just to mention them all, the article would be endless.

However, when we talk about electric ROVs the first name that comes to mind is Saab Seaeye.

The Fareham-based firm is one of the world’s largest names in electric underwater robotic systems.

Looking back almost four years, we can see now what Jon Robertson, managing director of Saab Seaeye meant when he told us that the future of ROVs is electric.

Even then he mentioned how this electric ROV pioneer is developing both work and inspection solutions that will ultimately not need the above mentioned tether.

I’m sure that everyone knows about the Falcon by now, but lets look at the big guns – the Jaguar and the Leopard.

Launched quite some time ago, the Seaeye Jaguar rolled out a new era in electric ROV design standing shoulder to shoulder with the hydraulic ROVs.

As the largest vehicle in Saab Seaeye’s range with up to 6,000 metres capability, the Jaguar introduced a new concept in control and power distribution.

However, its smaller brother the Seaeye Leopard has gained more popularity with operators, who even today opt for this vehicle in the continuously growing electric ROV market.

The Leopard is fitted with up to 11 electric thrusters to provide a forward thrust of over 500kgf, and has a 200 kilograms payload.

It is also controlled by Saab Seaeye’s well-known iCON intelligent control system.

When compared to a 66 ton hydraulic equivalent, the Leopard’s 25 ton complete package offers considerable savings, including a much smaller footprint, faster mobilisation, lower maintenance costs and the need for fewer staff.

Its popularity continues. Just to mention, Rovco has recently purchased the Leopard ROV expanding its subsea capability and capacity.

Not an ROV newbie in any sense, we all know what SMD stands for in the ROV world.

The Newcastle-based ROV designer and manufacturer entered the electric work class ROV arena last year by unveiling its Quantum EV ROV.

It didn’t come overnight. SMD has spent about five years developing its new electric vehicle range.

According to the company, its new vehicle introduces electric drive technology to the subsea sector in an optimised, modular package which brings work class ROV performance and capability to a new level.

When asked what the new Quantum EV brings to the table, SMD’s Mark Collins, said:

“Compared to older electric vehicles there are three main standout features:

– It can move at high speed and operate in currents twice as strong as its nearest competitor.

– There are less moving parts to wear with plug and play modules and redundancy all helping ensure high levels of availability to work.

– It has a cutting edge flight stability system that can take commands from a local pilot, an onshore control centre or artificial intelligence.

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The first Quantum EV is nearing completion. This will then commence 3 months of open water testing. First deliveries are planned for Q1 2021.

As subsea industry is at the heart of energy transition, including robotics, we will get back to this topic soon.

Technology is being developed that will change the way contractors work subsea.

We expect to see more companies transition to using unmanned vessels to reduce operational costs and increase safety.

This also includes 3D vision and artificial intelligence further reducing operating costs associated with owning subsea assets.

There are also many other electric ROV developers contributing to energy transition so stay tuned.