A pilot project using uncrewed surface vessels (USV) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) at the Deutsche Bucht Offshore Wind Farm, in the German North Sea, has concluded.
Teams from wind farm owner Northland Power and marine technology company Subsea Europe Services worked on the pilot in July 2023 to verify performance.
The data gathered will help further develop the operational workflows of Subsea Europe Services’ Autonomous Surveyor USV for multibeam surveying and A.IKANBILIS Hovering AUV (HAUV) for subsea inspections such as scour and marine growth surveys, when deployed from a Service Operations Vessel (SOV) mothership used for O&M at the wind farm.
The so-called “mothership concept” was proved to be successful throughout the pilot, with seamless integration of the various teams and equipment working aboard the Albert Betz SOV resulting in a wider weather window for marine survey and underwater inspection operations, with launch and recovery up to Sea State 3 and data acquisition according to the specified requirements.
“Supported by the great teamwork of everybody on board, the additional personnel, equipment and workflows for managing and using the USV and AUV for marine surveying and underwater inspections blended in well with the overall operations of the SOV, demonstrating that the ‘mothership concept’ works in a live scenario,” said Jan Schmökel, Balance of Plant Engineer, Northland Power.
While Subsea Europe Services continues to fine tune and further automate workflows based on the experiences of the pilot project, both Autonomous Surveyor and A.IKANBILIS are available for offshore wind farm deployment.
Full commercial readiness of a combined turnkey USV/HAUV solution for major projects and permanent mothership deployment is expected by Q1 2024.