Sulmara wins funding for OTH uncrewed surface vessel

Sulmara personnel carrying out sea trials in Sweden.(L to R); Derek Martin (USV pilot), Jim Gardiner, (innovation and development manager) and Gregor Chau (trainee USV survey engineer).

Scottish subsea specialist Sulmara has been awarded funding by the Glasgow-based Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) to develop an over-the-horizon (OTH) uncrewed surface vessel (USV) with the ability to launch and recover towed sensor packages.

The goals of the development project are to provide a more environmentally friendly methodology for data acquisition to support offshore energy asset decommissioning, including verification of clear seabed, marine growth monitoring, environmental and critical component monitoring and 3D imaging of subsea infrastructure.

Specific design elements will be incorporated in the systems to provide similar pre- and post-construction data acquisition in offshore renewables to that seen in oil and gas, accelerating decarbonization across the marine industry.

The project will deliver a platform, meeting the requirements of the U.K. MCA Workboat Code 3, that will be certified to work over the horizon in U.K. waters.

The project will also further the development of Sulmara’s Glasgow-based remote operations center(ROC) that regularly conducts OTH projects across the world.

In conjunction with designing and delivering a USV solution, Sulmara will be developing a customer data portal for cloud-based access and mission tasking, providing a more interactive customer experience throughout the project lifecycle.

To provide additional expertise for the project, Sulmara has brought in as technology partnerd USV specialists Maritime Robotics and Lidan Marine, which designs and build remote launch and recovery systems, while Harbour Energy will providing access to its subsea assets,

Sulmara will work towards commercial proof of concept demonstrations of both the USV with towed hardware and the cloud portal data delivery.

“This project is a culmination of the investment Sulmara has made so far in the commercialization of USV technology and, by broadening the payload that can be deployed from a remote vehicle, will provide a new foundation for Sulmara to further challenge the conventions of offshore data acquisition,” said Sulmara CTO Andy Doggett. “Sulmara has proven the use of multiple USV platforms to acquire hull mounted sensor data and has delivered multiple commercial projects with static towed sensors. The next step in this evolution is to dynamically tow advanced geophysical sensors that are launched and recovered from an uncrewed platform.”