Outland Technology has been empowering underwater exploration activities for 40 years, both supporting the commercial diving industry with novel products and, for more than 20 years, the design, engineering, and manufacturing of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
Today, Outland’s subsea solutions can be found in action around the globe, being used for a broad range of missions and applications, including search and recovery operations; naval archaeology; commercial diving; fisheries and aquaculture; defense exercise; offshore energy exploration; and other specialist projects led by the likes of NASA.
SEARCH & RECOVERY
Bruce’s Legacy is a non-profit organization specializing in underwater recoveries. Led by Keith Cormican, this is the highly sought out team that many law enforcement operatives enlist to carry out underwater search and recovery operations.
Quite remarkably, Bruce’s Legacy holds the records for both the highest altitude underwater recovery at 16,400 ft (5,000 m) above sea level and the deepest known recovery at 1,565 ft (477 m) in California’s Lake Tahoe. Both record feats were performed utilizing Outland ROVs.
FISHERIES & AQUACULTURE
Outland ROVs support numerous fishing ecology services and aquaculture companies. Dauphin Island Sea Labs utilizes an Outland ROV to survey fish and wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. Blue Ocean Mariculture uses an Outland ROV to survey their beautiful Hawaiian Kanpachi, in submersible sea pens to ensure optimal, natural conditions for the fish and surrounding ecosystem.
OFFSHORE ENERGY
Companies such as Oceaneering, Seatrepid, C-Innovation, Jacob’s Engineering and Baker Marine Systems use Outland’s ROVs to perform underwater tasks. From offshore wind farms to platform inspections and commercial diver support, these ROVs are invaluable to the operations performed in the Gulf of Mexico and other regions of offshore infrastructure development around the world.
DEFENSE & NASA
Outland ROVs are deployed extensively by both the US Army and the US Navy for conducting subsea inspections and other military operations. Some deployments are quite distinct, such as Outand’s support of NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations 9 mission, or NEEMO 9, during which 6 aquanauts spent 18 days underwater living aboard Aquarius, an undersea laboratory stationed 67 feet (20 meters) beneath the ocean surface, just off Key Largo in the Florida Keys. An Outland ROV was used as an underwater rover during the mission to collect samples and return them to the undersea labs.
TOPSIDE POWER
Outland ROVs are exclusively topside powered ROVs, designed to stay underwater until the job is complete. Often, the hardest part of operating an ROV underwater is finding the target. The last thing an ROV pilot wants to do after locating an underwater target hundreds of feet down is return to the surface to charge or replace batteries.
While topside power seems like an obvious choice for an ROV, the implementation of topside power is challenging. The topside power supply is typically high voltage DC, which can present hazards in a marine environment. Outland has been manufacturing these high voltage underwater systems for over 20 years, with a spotless safety record, and offers numerous different battery conversion systems for ROV manufacturers. Each of these systems is unique to the power requirements and use case of the ROV.
ROV-3000
The last 20+ years of designing, manufacturing, and supporting ROV development has taught us that these sophisticated systems are seldom used just as flying cameras. So, when we embarked on a two-year design effort to create the next breed of Outland ROV, we made sure to incorporate new features to push the limits of inspection-class ROVs.
The ROV-3000 topside system converts AC power to 3,500 W of high voltage DC power. This power pushes 6 thrusters producing 30+ lbs of thrust each. All this power is available for continuous use with no need to surface for charging or battery swaps.
Years of integrating tooling and sensors into Outland ROVs greatly influenced the development of the ROV-3000. The ROV frame includes 8020 aluminum extrusions for ease of tooling attachment, the available power for accessories/tooling is excessive, and the control bottle and tether allow for 100 Mbs of bandwidth. One recent example of such an integration is the Vaarst skid—a fully automated tilting skid package with an integrated SLAM camera system. Like the rest of the ROV, the skid was engineered to easily attach and detach requiring no tools and only seconds to convert between skid and skid-less operation.
The entire ROV was designed with ease-of-use in mind. The thrusters all include a quick release mechanism to allow tool-free removal. The ROV can be completely disassembled and reassembled with nothing more than a screwdriver. The user interface on the console allows the thrusters to be quickly switched to each orientation. Whatever the mission, the ROV can be configured to match its strength with the task.
The ROV-3000’s versatility and tooling integration capabilities have been evident in the early production systems, with an extensive display of tooling and sensors integrations including:
- Operator controlled tilting Vaarst SLAM camera skid
- Multibeam sonar: Tritech Gemini 1200ik & Oculus M50d
- Scanning sonar: TriTech micron
- DVLs: WaterLinked A50 & A125
- CP Probe: Outland CP-100
- Impact Subsea ISA500 flooded member detector
- Outland underwater grinder, UWG-100
- Outland two function manipulator, MP-100
Since the launch of the ROV-3000 in February 2023, several sonar packages have been added, including the Sonoptics Echo and the Ping 360. A SLAM camera from Voyis has also been integrated into a skid package. With these upgrades, we are finalizing and testing a new version of the Outland two-function manipulator with 5 times the gripping strength of our current manipulator.
Outland has been a staple and an innovator in the marine industry for 40 years. Even if you haven’t heard of Outland Technology, if you are using topside powered ROV systems, you’re likely benefiting from Outland’s innovation. As the ROV market progresses and innovation continues, Outland Technology will continue to push the limits of underwater robotics.
This feature originally appeared in ON&T’s April 2024 issue. Click here to read more.
