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DP System for ROVs
01 Sep 2007
Edinburgh based SeeByte has launched its new SeeTrack Offshore V2.1 dynamic positioning system for ROVs which, it says, can also be retrofitted to existing craft.
The system essentially automates control processes, enabling an ROV to complete missions autonomously whilst automatically compensating for current effects and taking high-resolution pictures at a distance. Its development is the outcome of several years of research partly sponsored by BP Exploration & Technology Group followed by an extended series of trials in the Gulf of Mexico and west of Shetland.
According to Ioseba Tena, SeeByte's product manager, the system fuses data from various sensors and takes the control inputs from an ROV joystick to compensate for current and tether effects.
Tena adds that all DP modes have been designed with the assistance and interaction of a number of ROV pilots. Moreover, tests have shown that it is possible to carry out safer and quicker operations on common tasks such as transiting towards targets identified on sonar displays, complex manipulator work, inspection activities from afar, and docking an ROV to a base where there may be a significant amount of heave.
