1. 17/12/2001 "SUMARE" Workshop - Nice 1 SWIMMER Subsea Work Inspection & Maintenance with Minimum Environment Rov

2. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice2 Presentation Overview ä ä Limitations of ROV operations on deepwater fields ä ä The hybrid ROV / AUV solution ä ä System components and mode of operation ä ä Sea Trials

3. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice3 Project Partners  Project supported by the European Commission (THERMIE Programme) Approach Sonar System Long Range Positioning System Acoustic Communications Technical Advisory General Advisory

4. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice4 ROV operation in deep water fields - Drawbacks : ä ä Permanent surface support (DP Vessel) ä ä Significant cost ä ä 90% of the total spread cost (typically) ä ä Availability ä ä Time for mobilisation ä ä Weather conditions ä ä Umbilical / Tether management ä ä Increasing size / length of umbilicals ä ä Low Reliability of associated components (slip rings, connectors…) - 85% of break downs … Is it possible to avoid this ?

5. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice5 Deepwater Field Subsea Installations  Statement : Subsea facilities are linked to the surface production unit by a Production Umbilical  The basic idea is to :  Tap the ROV power and data communication from the sub-sea facilities through the production umbilical  Operate the ROV from the surface production facilities

6. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice6 The SWIMMER Solution : An Hybrid ROV / AUV  AUV Shuttle for flying a standard ROV from surface to sub-sea facilities –No surface / vehicle physical link during transit phase –Uses simple permanent sub-sea installation  Docking station connected to production umbilical –No limitation on ROV tasks  Real-time controlled and powered up from the surface through production umbilical

7. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice7 The Swimmer shuttle :

8. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice8 Sea Trials Video

9. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice9 Long Range Positioning System & Acoustic Communication ä ä Hybrid LBL / Dead Reckoning Long Range Positioning System ä ä On-board absolute position calculation ä ä Metric accuracy ä ä Solves multiple path problems ä ä Vehicle motion compensation ä ä Bi-directional Acoustic Telemetry Link ä ä 20 bits/s data rate ä ä Half duplex  1 acoustic system :  10 km slant range  Ultra-high reliability and noise immunity  Use CHIRP modulation

10. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice10 Acoustic Modules Lay out

11. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice11 Short Range Positioning System ä ä Approach on Docking Station requires : ä ä Decimetric accuracy ä ä 100 m range ä ä No active system on the Docking Station  On-board SONAR image 3D processing :  Uses 2 profiling sonars  Accuracy increases as distance to target decreases  Positioning data refresh rate : 1 Hz

12. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice12 Short Range Positioning System : SONAR Image 3D-Processing

13. 17/12/2001"SUMARE" Workshop - Nice13 Conclusions By achieving a first fully automatic docking operation of Swimmer on its station (October 2001), the feasibility of Hybrid vehicles has been demonstrated. Intense R&D efforts still have to be deployed to reach an operational stage (up to 2005 ?).