Rovco will be working in partnership with Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the UK’s flagship technology innovation and research centre for advancing wind, wave and tidal energy.
During the first phase of the project, Rovco will develop the equipment and software needed to produce live 3D data from extreme subsea environments, reports the Offshore Wind Journal.
The technology will be trialed and tested at ORE Catapult’s renewable energy test facility in Blyth. The ORE Catapult Remote Inspection Technology Evaluation (RITE) service, is an integrated range of services to test, demonstrate and provide an assessment of remote turbine inspection technologies.
The whole purpose of RITE is to de-risk the use of remote inspection technologies and provide confidence in the quality of their outputs. From the data acquired during the first phase of the project, Rovco will then construct 3D vision-based survey solutions using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The first phase of the project will be 70 percent supported by Innovate UK with the remaining 30 percent funded by Rovco. Once technical feasibility has been confirmed, Innovate UK is expected to support phase two.
Brian Allen, Rovco chief executive, and founder said: “We aim to deliver a step change in how offshore surveys are performed by generating live 3D data from survey-class ROVs to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and minimise risks.”
Allen added, “Compared to traditional visual survey methods, 3D delivers precise measurements and reliable metrics for asset condition monitoring. Combining this with the use of AI to better analyze and understand subsea data, enhances asset integrity decisions and reduces the manpower required, while also speeding up project turnaround times.
“We are looking forward to working alongside the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult to develop a system that could lower subsea inspection and decommissioning costs by 80 percent.”
About Rovco
The company was founded by Brian Allen, Dr. Iain Wallace, and Joe Tidball over 2016 and 2017, and found instant success by leading the way in bringing AUV and ROV 3D computer vision and artificial intelligence technologies subsea.
With the world becoming ever more autonomous, according to Rovco’s website, these technologies are poised to take over in the oil, gas and renewables industries. Rovco believes their applications will lower the cost of operations and maintenance for underwater asset owners and Rovco is positioned to ride the crest of this growth wave in an industry predicted to be worth over $4 billion per year by 2020.
This latest project actually follows a previous one Rovco had with Innovate UK where the company successfully demonstrated the market need and overall feasibility for 3D models of subsea assets.
