TECH SPOTLIGHT
USV Technology Integration for Offshore Data Harvesting
that enables new ways of collecting data for cable route engineering and more.
Exeter-based HydroSurv, an innovator in Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) technology, collaborated with Sonardyne to demonstrate the benefits of USV platforms in providing rapid environmental assessments offshore. Their aim was to show integrated capability using a HydroSurv USV fitted with Sonardyne’s Mini-Ranger 2 Ultra-Short Base Line (USBL) positioning system.
Background Offshore renewable energy projects need data throughout their lifespans, including detailed surveys at the development stage. Data harvesting surveys have traditionally been carried out using conventional vessels with crew onboard. However, as project sites become more challenging and complex to access, there is growing demand for survey solutions that keep people out of harm’s way in safer onshore environments.
Additionally, as the industry strives to reach its net zero emissions targets, developers need low carbon alternatives to complete these critical tasks. Cost is also a key factor, and with suitable design support for robust data collection, a wind farm can reduce failures and associated downtime and their resulting negative impacts on revenue. Offshore renewable energy projects need to determine the most suitable landfall location to bring
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the export cables ashore, considering multiple factors including water velocity profiling to assess risk of cable scour. As well as this, detailed understanding of the current conditions helps offshore wind farms understand the environmental pressures that their export cables are required to withstand throughout the project’s lifetime.
Challenges Accurate spatial and temporal data is a key element to the development of offshore renewable energy projects. Accessibility is often difficult however, with the required frequency of site surveys to gain sufficient data increasing both risk and cost. In addition to this, projects are being placed further from shore, exacerbating the accessibility challenges.
Developers also need to ensure that no damage is done to existing subsea infrastructure, as well as be able to monitor these assets and ensure they are operating correctly throughout the data collection campaign. Weather and sea states need to be constantly monitored, particularly if deploying a traditional, crewed vessel.
Solution USVs can visit challenging offshore sites more frequently, at significantly lower cost and with a carbon impact reduction of over 90%. HydroSurv’s zero emission, fully electric REAV-40 USV design is capable of self-transiting to nearshore worksites, offering a day-work capability
Sonardyne’s Mini-Ranger 2 USBL system is popular for use on mid-size USVs because it provides easy to install and use capability to position, track, communicate with and health check and configure/reconfigure mobile and seafloor-based instruments. Like all Sonardyne hardware, it uses Sonardyne’s 6G Wideband spread-spectrum digital signal processing to communicate, track and position any 6G-enabled instruments.
Results In March 2022 the collaboration team streamed a live, online demonstration to Blue Gem Wind, Simply Blue Group and OWC audiences in multiple locations, harvesting data straight to a cloud portal and showing near real- time seabed data to desk capability.
The integration demonstrated real-world capability of USVs, as platforms for integrated systems and sensors, to execute critical data harvesting campaigns safely and cheaply for the offshore sector, providing near real-time data and information of immediate value to the customer.
This project combined the proven environmental and financial benefits of deploying USV platforms with Ultra-Short Base Line (USBL) underwater positioning and Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) technologies. However, the approach is relevant to many other instrument types and symbiotic systems.
HydroSurv’s larger, longer endurance REAV-60 USV design offers increased capability further offshore in harder to reach locations and more challenging waters for low cost, low carbon data harvesting capability. HydroSurv is now making Mini-Ranger 2 and SprintNAV Mini integration available for customers to specify for turnkey integration into its USV platforms.
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