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38 st / February 2016 www.sea-technology.com the Dynatest that shows the customer how well the AHC will work. This is done by simulating the vessel motion, and letting the winch pay in and pay out to compensate. The motion refer- ence unit (MRU) can then be installed and the system readied for AHC opera- tions, giving the controller information about the vessel movements—heave, pitch and roll. In the case of the Bibby Athena, the winch, made by Lawson Engineers in the U.K., was already installed on board the vessel and Scantrol's AHC recommended by the manufacturer. The system was assembled after receiv- ing hydraulics analysis from a British hydraulic expert and then shipped to the vessel. Scantrol's U.K. service en- gineer then commissioned and tested the system with remote support from engineers at the Bergen offces. The testing and fne-tuning was done while Bibby Athena was in operation, and the winch was operational with AHC only three weeks after order. iSYM Online for Remote Support After an AHC system is operation- al, the remote support from Scantrol's offces remains a key feature for cus- tomers. iSYM online is an important tool where Scantrol's engineers can log on to the system using the vessel's satellite Internet connection. This not only saves time and resources, but allows the possibility of including more than one engineer if more com- plex troubleshooting is needed. The AHC Toolbox also includes other features that ensure the con- tinuous performance of the system. AHC Performer offers continuous monitoring of vessel movement and winch operation to make sure that optimum AHC is achieved without overloading the winch. The opera- tor can see the percentage of winch capacity used for AHC. The data log- ger registers all important parameters of the winch in the system and can be used for operational purposes as well as fault fnding. AHC Predictor is used by the operator to predict AHC performance before starting lifting op- eration, based on present vessel move- ment and present or planned load. Conclusion AHC is a technology used when lifting equipment during subsea opera- tions in order to flter away the heave motion of the vessel and thereby in- crease operational time. Traditionally this technology has only been avail- able for high-end cranes and winches due to the complexity, cost and exten- sive commissioning and tuning proce- dures. Scantrol has taken on the challenge to lower the threshold for acquiring the system and has made the technol- ogy available for a wider range of us- ers. No longer reserved for the main crane, AHC can now be used with a wide range of applications—even ex- isting equipment—where there is a need for isolating the load from the vessel's heave motion. Key to making the system available to a wider range of customers is the AHC Toolbox, a set of tools that simplifes the process of test, design, operation and support, all done remotely from the Scantrol of- fces in Bergen. ST Dr. Darren Hammer- sland-White is an R&D; manager at Scantrol and has been with the compa- ny since 2004. His main responsibility is technical strategy and leadership. He is a specialist in many different aspects of soft- ware and systems engineering, including computer vision, complex industrial networks, data exchange systems, databases, automation systems, RTUs, and computers. He has degrees in physics, computer science (software and systems) and computer vi- sion with image/signal processing. Rolf Krogh Hjelmeland is a design engineer at Scan- trol and has been with the company since 2012. His main focus is heave com- pensation for winches and cylinders and com- plete control solutions for launch and recovery systems. He received a master's degree in physics from the University of Bergen in 2012. www.nke-instrumentation.com Autonomous WiFi connection No specific software Booth #B401 YOUR SOLUTION FOR IN SITU MEASUREMENT Up to 150 cycles 4000m deep 10 days Muldepth profiles capabilies Deep Argo CTD Oxygen optode DEEP ARVOR Profiling float WiFi DATA LOGGERS New generation Product developed Under Ifremer licence PC / Mac Tablet / Smartphone "Retroftting of existing equipment to AHC is often a very cost-effective way to increase operational time."