Sea trials plot course for autonomous subsea survey vessels
A company developing the world’s first fleet of autonomous low-impact subsea vehicles for acquiring seismic data from the ocean floor has successfully conducted a series of trials.
The UK’s Blue Ocean Seismic Services has developed the ‘nodes’ to acquire high-quality imaging (OBS) data from the ocean floor for the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, offshore wind farms and oil & gas fields.
The company, which has received backing from bp Ventures, Woodside Energy and Blue Ocean Monitoring, said their underwater vehicles will make offshore seismic surveys more affordable, faster, safer, more environmentally friendly and less carbon intensive.
The autonomous ocean bottom seismic robotic vehicle (OBSrV) nodes ‘fly to their set location, land on the seabed, upon command relocate to another position and land, and then finally resurface for recovery,’ explained Simon Illingworth, managing director & CEO, Blue Ocean Seismic Services.
“It is essential that the node couples well to the seabed and doesn’t move in currents,” he added. “Typically, this is done by making them heavy, but we need them as light as possible to be able to ‘fly’”.
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Comment: Engineers must adapt to AI or fall behind
A fascinating piece and nice to see a broad discussion beyond GenAI and the hype bandwagon. AI (all flavours) like many things invented or used by...