Contact
Quote
Support
“This had never been done before, as such technology did not exist on the market,” explains Quentin Teo, Regional Sales Manager at iXblue. “Traditionally, before construction firms begin the deployment of an SEP or a rig, a survey is conducted by a hydrographic vessel in order to ensure that the chosen location is safe for deployment, as hazards can be encountered, and the seabed can be uneven. And because SEP are very large platforms, their maneuverability is limited and the positioning of their jacks (legs) is done blindly, based on the survey that has been conducted. One can easily understand how tricky the whole operation is.”
The use of an imagery system able to display the seabed in real-time, for operators to see where they are positioning the legs of the platform is thus a major breakthrough as it removes the need for pre-survey operations conducted by costly vessels and brings about more efficient and more flexible construction operations, as well as increased safety as a whole.
Recognized for its innovative spirit and agility, as well as for the advanced imagery technology developed by its Sonar division, iXblue thus started to work on this new request. The company’s SeapiX volumic 3D sonar being particularly close to the client’s requirements, it was decided to adapt the existing product to this particular marine construction application.
“SeapiX is one of the only solid-state solutions able to measure the bathymetric profile of a specific area from a still position, while still covering a wide range and being straight-forward to use,u201d explains Maxence Rioblanc, Product Manager at iXblue. “Penta-Ocean having identified SeapiX as a viable solution, we worked on adapting it to their specific needs. We focused on four major developments; from the algorithms that allow the sonar to perform a “static bathymetry”, to the new MMI, based on the GECDIS used for fishing applications and that we adapted for offshore operators while also adding new elements such as a 3D model of the SEP and its four legs, as well as new features including the possibility for the user to switch between the new three available modes (static bathymetry, standard bathymetry, and scanning). We also worked on integrating the information coming from the SEP (legs position, displacement, height when rising above the waterline), and on how to control the 4 SeapiX (one per leg) and how to visualize their bathymetric results all within a single user interface.
After less than a year working on this project, iXblue SeapiX-C sonar was ready to provide both dynamic and static seabed imagery for Penta-Ocean SEP and a first commissioning was conducted back in March 2019.
