ROV and AUV applications

ROVs and AUVs are equipped with the latest technology in navigation, oceanographic, seabed mapping, real time monitoring, dynamic positioning and high-resolution imaging sensor systems. KONGSBERG supplies sensors for inertial navigation and positioning, pipeline survey, pipeline touchdown observation, visual navigation and collision avoidance, deep-sea site clearance, diver supervision, natural resource search survey and claim, and defense and security applications.

ROV and AUV instrumentation packages consisting of a complete suite of imaging, positioning and communication hardware and software are designed for straightforward installation and mobilisation on any subsea vehicle.

Sub-bottom profiling

Not all areas being dredged are soft material. There can be a number of solid obstacles in the area to be dredged that can damage dredging equipment if not identified prior to operations. These can include unexploded ordnance, rocks, buried pipelines, and uncharted tramp material like lost anchors or dumped materials. Sub-bottom profilers can identify solids so they can be removed prior to dredging operations.

Security and defense

Kongsberg sonar are used by navies for counter-mines measures. In ports, the threat is from improvised explosive devices. Authorities responsible for port security need to locate and identify potential threats before they can be activated. For these applications, high resolution, long range and clarity of image are key to identify targets and assess their potential lethality.

Resource search survey and claim

The ocean bed is rich with natural resources. Kongsberg instruments assist surveyors in their search for thermal and hydrocarbon seeps and mineral deposits. The ability to capture multiple types of data using various sensors, and accurately chart where those resources are at great depths, is key to evaluating the economic value of a resource prior to extracting it for use on the surface.

Commercial diver and underwater construction support

Commercial diving is a hazardous occupation that typically involves completing work tasks in limited or zero visibility, and heavy construction equipment slinging loads weighing many tons. Since the 1990s, Kongsberg has been pivotal at training commercial diving and construction companies in how to use high-resolution sonar to position gabions, concrete revetment mattresses, piles, and assist in salvage operation. etc. They are also deployed to monitor the diver’s position on bottom or in the water column. Due to multiple Delta-P diver deaths in confined structures in 2020/2021, the industry is now creating regulations mandating that sonar be used to monitor commercial divers when completing work in confined spaces. This allows dive supervisors to observe in real time the diver and their umbilical, and surroundings for potential hazards, thus ensuring safer mobility even in zero visibility conditions.

Site clearance

As aging offshore oil and gas platforms are decommissioned, increased environmental scrutiny by Federal and State regulators requires the site owner to leave the lease clear of debris and foreign materials. In shallow water, site clearance is typically completed using scanning sonar to guide commercial divers to identify and recover man-made objects. At depths where deploying divers becomes prohibitively expensive, ROVs equipped with high-resolution sonar and tracking systems are utilized to search, locate, identify, and then recover foreign debris. Kongsberg’s state-of-the art sonars have a long and successful track record as the best systems to use for this application in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

Navigation and collision avoidance

Navigation and collision avoidance for ROVs and AUVs is challenging as these vehicles operate at extreme depths over great distances, in many cases in low or zero visibility conditions that render cameras useless. Collision avoidance is a mission-critical capability where work-class ROVS perform intervention tasks that could result in significant environmental damage and economic loss to oilfield operators. Kongsberg high-resolution single-beam and multi-beam imaging sonar have been specified and reliably used by the industry’s largest WROV manufacturers world-wide.

Pipeline survey

Pipeline survey is performed to verify the condition of the pipe itself and to ensure its structural integrity where pipelines are subject to damage by currents, relative motion at pipeline crossings, and snags from anchors or fishing gear. Kongsberg offers a variety of pipeline survey solutions including dual head scanning sonar, dual head multibeam sonar, and high-resolution cameras.

Hydrographic survey

KONGSBERG multibeam echo sounders and wide swath phase measuring bathymetric sonars offer simultaneous swath bathymetry and side scan/multibeam backscatter seabed mapping from a payload module readily integrated into any remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and also autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV). These instruments are available in a range of depth ratings and performance parameters.