ACUA Ocean and Forssea Robotics have completed trials combining an uncrewed surface vessel (USV) with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for fully remote subsea inspection and light intervention operations off Plymouth in the UK.
The three-week campaign paired Forssea's 170-kg ARGOS ROV with ACUA's USV Pioneer, completing more than 40 deployments with launches, dives and recoveries commanded remotely from shore.
The integration, carried out under a contract with the European Space Agency, included operations in two-meter waves south of the Plymouth breakwater, with no impact on the ROV, according to the companies.
Over six days at sea, the partners completed as many as eight launch-and-recovery cycles in a single day. The ROV reached and inspected the seabed in more than 20 meters of water and operated with up to 35 meters of tether deployed.
Testing included an inspection of the Poulmic wreck, a seabed feature and a concrete target block in Cawsand Bay. Operations were also conducted in one-meter waves with winds averaging 18 knots and gusting between 20 and 30 knots.
Sonardyne's Mini-Ranger 2 USBL system installed on Pioneer tracked a WSM6+ transponder on ARGOS, while manual and dynamic-positioning station keeping were used to hold the ROV on task.
The combined system was controlled from ACUA Ocean's Remote Operations Centre at Turnchapel Wharf, with Forssea simultaneously supervising operations from its headquarters in Sète, France.
The companies are targeting offshore inspection, repair and maintenance, survey and subsea infrastructure work with the integrated system.
"These trials prove we can open a weather window that conventional crewed vessels cannot work in, giving operators a wider weather window for inspection campaigns. Just as importantly, running inspection campaigns from an uncrewed surface vessel takes significant cost out of the work - fewer support vessels, fewer people offshore and far less weather-related downtime,” said Neil Tinmouth, ACUA Ocean CEO.
"All of us at Forssea are hugely proud of this milestone and impressed by Pioneer's sea-state capabilities. Seeing how smoothly the ROV integration and the multiple launch-and-recovery sequences went over the past few weeks was hugely satisfying. My congratulations to the ACUA engineering teams - we are excited to see what comes next," added Gautier Dreyfus, Forssea Robotics’ CEO.
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