One of the more notorious Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in the field today is Boaty McBoatface, a name shared with the other five units in the National Oceanography Centre’s (NOC) fleet of Autosub Long Range (ALR) vehicles. Within the Boaty (as the ALRs are affectionately known) fleet are two depth ratings, three of the ALRs are rated 1,500 m, and three at 6,000 m. They can travel thousands of kilometers to collect critical marine data on long-endurance missions— lasting several months—without the presence of a support vessel. Boaty is able to surface periodically and transmit data back to mission control via a satellite link.
NORTH SEA DEPLOYMENT
One of Boaty’s most recent deployments was to conduct critical research on end-of-life oil fields off the coast of Shetland, UK. The campaign was designed to help monitor and protect the marine environment in the North Sea and support the offshore energy sector’s transition towards net-zero targets.
The Autonomous Techniques for infraStructure Ecological Assessment (AT-SEA) project, led by the NOC, seeks to test and validate the use of submersibles like Boaty for high-tech, low-impact environmental monitoring at target oil and gas structures in the region, including those in the decommissioned North West Hutton and Miller oilfields. The project team believe that this tech-inspired approach may eventually phase out some of the traditional surveying techniques used for environmental monitoring during the decommissioning process, which rely on dedicated vessels and teams of personnel offshore.
“The overall goal of the project is to improve the environmental protection of the North Sea at a reduced cost and impact to the environment. We aim to demonstrate how this leading robotic technology from the NOC could be used worldwide to support this crucial ocean monitoring,” said Project lead for AT-SEA, Dr. Daniel Jones from the NOC.
THE PROSPECT OF REMOTE OPERATIONS
Boaty’s capacity to autonomously gather data on the water quality, pollutants, and currents, as well as capture images of the seafloor safely and efficiently could lead to significant reductions to both emissions and overall operating costs.
“There are currently thousands of offshore oil and gas structures approaching the end of their operational life–approximately 500 in the UK alone—and this technology has the potential to redefine environmental assessment at decommissioning sites,” added Jones.
Not only have recent ocean tech developments expanded the utility, range, and payload capacity of uncrewed assets like AUVs and USVs for marine survey and inspection, but economies of scale have drastically curbed the cost of either acquiring or leasing such vehicles, and this increased accessibility continues to support the viability of sustainable remote marine survey operations from a shore-based command.
Data from the North Sea will not only prove critical to the inspection of the environment around submerged structures and enable the detection of possible oil and gas seeps, but also to help the project team compare the efficiency and reliability of Boaty’s data acquisition to that of long-established industry standards.
ON&T is looking forward to reporting on the North Sea study once the data are made available.
This story was originally featured in ON&T’s October 2022 issue. Click here to read more.
