Swire Seabed has completed the first autonomous inspection of offshore pipeline systems in October 2018, for Equinor, using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The vessel provided positional updates to the vehicle.
The review was conducted by Swire Seabed with the autonomous subsea vehicle. A surface vessel followed the AUV. Yet, its role was limited to giving updates and being a communication link between the AUV and the Control Centre at Swire Seabed’s office in Bergen.
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The inspections were conducted on 3 pipelines between Kollsnes and Troll A. Generally, 180 km of pipeline were inspected over two AUV dives. The latter, run by Kongsberg, acquired Bathymetrical, Synthetic Aperture Sonar and visual data as part of an operation to ensure the continued integrity of the subsea pipelines.
Criteria, such as quality, coverage and density, were similar to the ones utilised for non-autonomous inspection methods.
Finally, the review is part of Swire Seabed’s aim to develop an automated subsea inspection system and is a step closer to high technology.