Fugro has won two Spotlight on New Technology Awards, which are being presented at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas.
The award-winning technologies were evaluated for their product uniqueness, ingenuity, demonstrated success, commercial viability and potential for industry-wide impact, Fugro said.
They include the Blue Dragon, currently in final development and testing, which sets a new industry standard for geotechnical seabed characterisation, according to the company.
This modular and highly automated system tackles diverse water depths and terrains with ease, seamlessly performing in situ testing, soil sampling, and rock coring in a single dive, it said.
By reducing vessel size and crew requirements, the Blue Dragon contributes to environmental sustainability while automation elevates standards of health and safety both on deck and subsea thanks to integrated robotic pipe, tool and handling, Fugro added.
Also recognised was the company”s remote subsea inspection solution.
The system can launch and recover a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) from a multipurpose uncrewed surface vessel (USV), performing seabed mapping and inspection work from one platform.
Comprising Fugro’s Blue Volta eROV and Blue Essence USV technologies, the uncrewed approach moves personnel from the offshore environment to the safety of onshore remote operations centres and reduces the carbon footprint of ROV inspections by up to 95%, Fugro said.
Fugro’s president and group director in the Americas Céline Gerson said: “The OTC Spotlight on New Technology Award programme consistently showcases the industry’s most exciting innovations, so I’m extremely proud that Fugro is being recognised this year for two solutions that will help advance the energy transition.
“These remote and autonomous technologies are making projects safer and more sustainable while delivering significant time and cost savings. This is essential to driving down the levelised cost of energy for renewable sources like offshore wind.”
The award-winning technologies will be on display inside the Energy Transition Pavilion at OTC as part of the company’s Innovation Showcase series.