Accurate and real-time touchdown point and cable shape monitoring without ROV

On request of Tideway, Seatools developed a dedicated Touchdown Monitoring System for the installation of the Norned cable. The system, based on taut wire technology, provides accurate and real-time data about the cable’s position and shape in water depths of up to 75 meters. The system provides data at full laying speeds and, at times, strong tidal currents; conditions in which expensive ROVs are unable to operate.

Accurate and real-time cable departure angle measurement

During the installation of the Norned cable, our client applied this cable departure monitoring system in conjunction with the cable touchdown monitoring system. The combination was deployed in order to obtain unobstructed insight in the cable’s shape, touchdown position, and behavior. The cable departure monitoring system is executed with a Seatools Twinclino sensor, which provides the cable departure angle in two directions in a highly accurate manner.

Special-purpose AUV for cable touchdown monitoring and registration

On request of Alcatel-Lucent, Seatools performed a conceptual design study on an AUV capable of accurately monitoring and recording a cable’s touchdown point.

The autonomous vehicle is capable of traveling down the cable and subsequently maintains station at a predefined altitude near the touchdown point. During cable laying, the vehicle maintains this position and continuously measures and records the cable touchdown point.

Autonomous monitoring and control system for abandonment and recovery hook

In order to monitoring the twist, tension, and torsion in the cables connected to an abandonment and recovery hook, as well as to control the opening and closing of this hook, IHC IQIP approached Seatools with a request for a monitoring and control system.

As no cables for power and data transmission were allowed, Seatools had to develop an autonomous system. We met this challenging requirement by powering the system with a battery-powered subsea HPU, while acoustic modems enabled data communication.

Accurate monitoring of pipe departure angle

In order to monitoring the departure angle of a pipe from a J-lay tower, Heerema Marine Contractors approached Seatools with a request for a monitoring system.

The system consists of multiple laser scanners in rugged housings combined with advanced signal processing software that determines the location of the pipe and generates alarms in case it deviates excessively from the firing line.

Accurate registration of a plough position during subsea cable installation projects

For a cable installation project performed by Boskalis the HighWire® taut wire system was applied for real time monitoring of the position of a subsea plough. This position reference system excels at typical North sea conditions present during offshore windfarms installation operations such as strong tidal currents, limited visibility, environmental noise and mixed zone operations. The system performed excellently by achieving high accuracy levels at every operational condition.

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