ROVs now and in the future

There are many large steel structures in the North Sea and the waters of the US Gulf, many of which are getting on in years. As a means of maintaining the cost-effectiveness of these assets, their operators are looking for new deposits to exploiting by tying them back to these platforms.

This requires that the integrity of the structures in terms of both corrosion and fatigue is assessed and guaranteed, probably beyond the original design life, and this will require extensive inspection. The detailed inspection of many hundreds of structural nodes, most of which will require cleaning first, is a massive task. It is only really cost effective if it can be automated, and this is likely to be a major application of ROVs in future. The vehicle technology will not have to improve greatly since they will probably continue to be launched near the site with an umbilical for power, but automation of the applications will continue to advance. Systems are already in the development stage whereby the vehicle will fly to a general location, identify the node it seeks, lock on, learn the geometry, clean and inspect. This will require sophisticated robotic arms, measuring systems employing sonar or laser technology, and solid geometry modelling packages. The ROVs will also be task-programmed: in other words, there will not be a pilot at the controls continuously; the ROV will perform the work with only supervisory control.