Sea Technology

OCT 2017

The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community

Issue link: http://sea-technology.epubxp.com/i/887058

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Navigation

Page 19 of 53

20 st / October 2017 www.sea-technology.com redundant propulsion, fuel, steering and electrical systems; DGNSS navi- gation; backup RF communications; an Iridium system; and a state-of-the- art command and control system. De- ploying the USVs in the water to track the AUVs and getting them back on deck again requires more specialized equipment, such as a dual-rotating da- vit launch and recovery system (LARS). The LARS is also fully redundant, com- plete with dual HPUs (hydraulic power units), davits, a painter line system for bringing the USVs alongside, and ro- tating storage carousels. Controlling up to 16 assets simulta- neously from a single vessel requires considerable planning and coordi- nation. While the AUVs, USVs and the support vessel all have their own navigation, control and route-planning software, the operation requires a spe- cialized software package to bring it all together. It was clear during the project development that no available off-the- shelf software package could meet the needs to plan dozens of coordinated missions for the autonomous vehicles and the ship. Basic requirements such as maintaining minimum and maxi- mum distances between survey lines, ensuring coverage, or timing launch and recoveries are extremely challeng- ing to plan across 16 assets. Ocean Infinity commissioned the development of a special fleet mis- sion planning and monitoring software called InfinityView, by 4D Nav. The software monitors data streams in real time from all of the assets, including navigation and vehicle health data, al- lowing the operators to monitor all as- sets in real time from a single reposito- ry. Most importantly, the software takes a holistic approach to planning the vehicles' missions, looking at the en- tire project area and breaking it into re- duced missions that a single asset can survey within its operating window. These single-asset/single-dive mission plans are all coordinated to complete the entire project mission. The software also calculates the best course for the main vessel to take, routing it efficient- ly between launch and recovery points and keeping it within the range of the radio system. One of the keys to reliability for the system is to maintain the native control software of all the vehicle platforms, ensuring the factory-designed robust- ness isn't compromised. While Infini- tyView provides a supervisory graphic user interface (GUI) for the whole fleet, all operations are controlled through the native asset software. This present- ed a special challenge for the IT system design and for networking everything together so that it works seamlessly for the operations team. The ship's net- work uses technology sourced from multiple industries at the cutting edge of IT performance. Forty GB/s switches across a multifiber backbone connect distributed processing cores and stor- age throughout the ship. Multiple file servers and tape backup units provide hundreds of terabytes of storage on board, while cloud-based systems pro- vide long-term, high-reliability backup for customers' data. All of this not only complements the online operation, but also enables offline shipboard process- ing of collected data. On board the main vessel sits an offline processing room with six workstations equipped with a full suite of geophysical pro- cessing software. All of the equipment was mobilized to a dedicated multipurpose offshore vessel, the 115-m Seabed Constructor. The Seabed Constructor is a DP2 ves- sel fully equipped to support geophysi- cal survey, as well as perform inspec- tion, repair, maintenance and salvage operations. Two USBL systems can support AUV operations from the main vessel to supplement the USVs. Two work-class ROVs (Schilling HD, rated 5,000 m; and Kystdesign, rated 6,000 m), a 250-T AHC crane and soon- to-be-mobilized 6,000-m fiber-rope winch system make this a comprehen- sive offshore system. The 1,300-sq. m deck provides ample space for opera- tions. Also, soon to be fitted is a full- ocean-depth multibeam echosounder system, able to produce bathymetry data during ship transits or perform re- connaissance obstruction survey prior to AUV missions. Mobilization, Capabilities, Initial Ops The initial mobilization of the fleet in June 2017 in Bergen, Norway, was a challenge, to say the least. It lasted approximately 40 days with an aver- age crew of 80 to 90 persons. Work- ing around the clock, the hangar was constructed on the ship and outfitted, the unmanned vehicle control systems installed, vehicles lifted to deck, the network upgraded, the two ROV sys- tems mobilized, and a large part of the ship's accommodations were refitted to suit the operation. More than 90 dis- UNDERWATER LISTENING SYSTEMS Versatile Acoustic Recorders Real-Time Listening Remote Buoys New Noise Processing Features www.rtsys.eu 25 rue Michel Marion 56850 Caudan - France +33 (0)297 898 580 - info@rtsys.eu International Standard and Guideline Compliant (ANSI, MSFD...)

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