GPS World

Tag: Sonardyne

  • Sonardyne chosen for Brazilian geoscience research vessels

    Sonardyne chosen for Brazilian geoscience research vessels

    Sonardyne logoBrazilian geoscience services company OceanPact Geociências has chosen deep-water positioning technology from Sonardyne Brasil Ltda. to support its geophysical, geotechnical and environmental research operations across the region.

    Ranger 2 ultra-short baseline (USBL) systems have been installed on board OceanPact’s research vessel Seward Johnson and RSV Austral Abrolhos to precisely track the location of underwater equipment and sensor packages deployed from the ships, including seabed corers, towed sensors and data loggers. Both vessels are currently on hire to Brazilian oil major Petrobras.

    Ranger 2 USBL is a popular choice for conducting research at sea as operations can start as soon as a vessel arrives on location. This helps maximise valuable ship time. It has the capability to track multiple underwater targets simultaneously to beyond 11 kilometers, works in shallow or deep water and is able to remotely configure and communicate with compatible instruments. This operational flexibility was a key factor in OceanPact’s investment decision.

    “This order from OceanPact further embeds Ranger 2’s reputation in the region. For those wanting accuracy and versatility, it’s proven itself time and again while also meeting the toughest specifications from oil and gas, science and survey companies,” Andre Moura, sales and applications manager at Sonardyne Brasil Ltda.

  • L3Harris, Sonardyne pursue precise autonomous navigation under water

    L3Harris, Sonardyne pursue precise autonomous navigation under water

    A new case study focuses on improving the endurance and navigational precision of underwater autonomous systems.

    Sonardyne, designer and manufacturer of underwater positioning and inertial navigation, describes the challenges to increase navigation capability for subsea monitoring and inspections. Sonardyne joined the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and L3Harris ASV on a two-year project to develop new positioning technologies to extend the limits of AUVs and UUVs.

    The project — Precise Positioning for Persistent AUVs (P3AUV) — is supported with £1.4 million  in funding through Innovate UK’s research and development competition for robotics and artificial intelligence in extreme and challenging environments.

    Sending autonomous and unmanned underwater vehicles (AUV, also known as UUVs) out on missions that will last for days or weeks, unaided by vessels or other supporting offshore infrastructure, is a major goal for the ocean science, offshore energy and defense sectors.

    Photo: Sonardyne
    Photo: Sonardyne

    Sustained Ocean Observation. The research community aims for sustained ocean observation without the need for ship support, especially in ice-covered polar areas. Long-duration navigational capability is also a key enabler for persistent covert surveillance operations in the defence sector. And emerging applications include resident seabed-based systems, deep-sea mining, aquaculture and UXO surveys for renewable installations.

    Autonomous AUVs would remove the need for a surface vessel, reduce risk to personnel, and reduce costs. Users could survey more seabed for longer and with fewer or even no people offshore.

    The team is developing ways to provide greater positioning accuracy for long-endurance operations in deep water, while also reducing power requirements. The team will also be increasing the use of autonomy to make long baseline (LBL) positioning transponder box-in faster and easier, with onboard data processing and calibration.

    High-power INS input. Central to this work is the AUV’s acoustic and inertial navigation system (INS). Low-power sensors have much lower navigation accuracy and often have to surface to correct positioning error with a GPS fix. The team seeks to integrate low- and high-power sensors to achieve high performance at much lower power consumption.

    For instance, the NOC’s Autosub Long Range (ALR) uses a low-power microelectronic mechanical system (MEMS) supported by separate Doppler velocity log (DVL) and ADCP input to calculate how far it has traveled on missions, which can be several months long. To increase the ALR’s positioning accuracy over longer distances, the team is using the Sonardyne SPRINT-Nav all-in-one subsea navigation instrument alongside MEMS technology to work towards high-precision solutions that save space and power.

    Image: Sonardyne
    Image: Sonardyne

    Accuracy during ascent and descent. The project also involves improving positioning accuracy when subsea vehicles transition through the water column. This is a notoriously difficult area for AUV deployments, because it relies on the Doppler velocity log (DVL) being able to lock on to the seafloor (bottom lock), so that vehicle XYZ velocities can be calculated, supported by pressure data.

    However, DVLs are range limited, so there is often a period where the DVL is out of range. When there are thousands of meters of water between the surface and the seabed, this can introduce significant positioning uncertainty.

    By using the acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) capability in Sonardyne’s SPRINT-Nav INS instrument (looking down) and a second Syrinx DVL (looking up), the team could then build up a layer-by-layer profile of the water column velocities to be used as tracking layers.

    The objective is to reduce positioning errors significantly during both the dive and surfacing phases of an operation. Results depend on the variability of the current in any given area.

    The data collected during the descent and surfacing phases can be processed to provide a full ocean-depth current profile — collection of which is required for many offshore energy projects and can be valuable for ocean research.

    Read more about the case study here.

  • Sonardyne delivers subsea navigation to McDermott pipelay vessel

    Sonardyne delivers subsea navigation to McDermott pipelay vessel

    Sonardyne Inc. has supplied acoustically aided inertial navigation technology to McDermott International for its Lay Vessel 108 (LV 108). McDermott is an offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation company.

    The Ranger 2 Pro DP-INS system, the highest specification available from Sonardyne, is being used to support touchdown monitoring surveys of submarine cables, umbilicals and pipelines and as an independent position reference for the LV 108’s Kongsberg dynamic positioning (DP) system.

    McDermott's Lay Vessel 108.
    McDermott’s Lay Vessel 108. Photo: McDermott

    McDermott’s LV 108 entered service in 2015 and is on contract in the Ichthys field, Western Australia. Designed as a fast-transit, dynamically positioned (DP 2) vessel for subsea constructions support across a wide variety of water depths, the LV 108 has 21,528 square feet of deck space and can accommodate a crew of 129.

    Dynamically positioned construction and installation vessels such as the LV 108, conventionally rely on ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustics and the GNSS as their primary sources of position reference data.

    However, a vessel’s station-keeping capability can be compromised in the event the USBL is affected by thruster aeration and noise and the GNSS signal is simultaneously interrupted. The latter is particularly common around equatorial regions and during periods of high solar radiation.

    Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 Pro DP-INS system addresses this operational vulnerability. It aids vessel positioning by exploiting the long-term accuracy of Sonardyne’s Wideband 2 acoustic signal technology with high-integrity, high-update-rate inertial measurements. The resulting navigation output has the ability to ride-through short-term acoustic disruptions and is completely independent from GNSS.

    In addition to the system’s deep-water positioning performance and safety benefits, DP-INS has been proven to deliver valuable time and cost savings for vessel owners. It does not need a full seabed array of transponders to be installed and calibrated before subsea operations can commence. For most subsea tasks, positioning specifications can be met with only one or two transponders deployed on the seabed.

    Additionally, as the system needs only occasional aiding from the acoustics, transponder battery life is substantially increased and the need to task a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to deploy and recover transponders for servicing is reduced.

    The equipment supplied to McDermott for the LV 108 included Sonardyne’s INS sensor co-located with the company’s sixth-generation (6G) HPT acoustic transceiver. This hardware was installed on one of the vessel’s two Kongsberg through-hull deployment machines and interfaced directly with the vessel’s DP system, also supplied by Kongsberg.

  • PNT Roundup: Inertial, acoustic, lidar, Wi-Fi and beacon news

    Independence, redundancy at sea

    Acoustically aided inertial navigation technology will enable a specialized sea vessel maintain dynamic positioning through GNSS disruptions in challenging environments.

    Sonardyne Inc.‘s dual Ranger 2 Pro DP-INS systems aboard the ultra-light intervention vessel Brandon Bordelon will track remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) during inspection, repair and maintenance activities, providing an independent position reference for the ship’s Marine Technologies Class 2 dynamic positioning system.

    The Lodestar motion sensing instrument platform (attitude and heading reference system, or AHRS) is tightly integrated with Sonardyne’s acoustic positioning components, providing power and control of surface and subsea transceivers as well as instruments such as Doppler velocity logs. The seamless integration of acoustics and inertial technologies exploits the long-term accuracy and precision characteristics of acoustic positioning with the continuous availability and fast update rate from high-grade inertial sensors.

    Specialized vessels such as this normally rely on GNSS and ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustics as their primary sources of dynamic positioning reference data. However, a vessel’s station-keeping capability can be compromised if the USBL is affected by noise or thruster aeration and the GNSS signal is simultaneously interrupted. GNSS signal interruption is particularly common around Equatorial regions and during periods of high solar radiation.

    Wideband Acoustic. The integrated acoustic-inertial system addresses this vulnerability, exploiting the long-term accuracy of Sonardyne’s Wideband  2 acoustic signal technology with inertial measurements.

    The resulting navigation output can ride through short-term acoustic disruptions and is completely independent from GNSS.

    The equipment includes Sonardyne’s ship-mounted inertial navigation sensor and two HPT 7000 acoustic transceivers. The HPTs have been installed on the Brandon Bordelon through hull deployment poles and are optimized for tracking and dynamic positioning in ultra-deep water.

    The equipment includes three ring laser gyroscopes that measure the angular rate and three accelerometers that measure the specific force of the moving platform. The INS output is low noise and accurate in the short term, but degrades over time. Therefore, it must be seamlessly aided with complimentary acoustic positioning observations.

    Ranger 2 DP-INS uses a tightly coupled integration of range and bearing measurements from seabed transponders to aid the INS and control integration drift.

    Industry effort pushes beyond-LOS UAV flight

    At the International Lidar Mapping Forum in February, two organizations announced an industry consortium to push for removal of barriers to use of drones in long-distance inspections.

    The presentation by Sharper Shape and Edison Electronic Institute made the point that UAVs — specifically, lidar-equipped UAVs — offer potential for more frequent and more affordable inspection and data capture for overhead assets such as power lines. Currently, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations restrict commercial operations to visual line of sight (VLOS). The EEI Sharper Utility project will advocate for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights.

    The presentation explored such issues as:

    • Types of information obtainable during UAV inspections and how that information can be used to improve infrastructure and asset management programs.
    • How UAVs provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional inspection methods, and the critical factors contributing to cost-efficiency.
    • Why industry-wide coordinated effort is required to institute change.
    • Steps and the key principles to enable commercial-scale drone operations for the electricity industry.
    • Identification of stakeholders and the regulators.
    • The anticipated date of permitted BVLOS drone flights in U.S. utility inspections.

    The Eyes of Texas. In related news, Xcel Energy announced a UAV flight research and development mission that traveled beyond the operator’s line of sight during survey of a transmission line in the Canadian River Breaks region north of Amarillo, Texas, in early February. Two contractors piloted the lidar-equipped Vapor 55 drone. Xcel began using unmanned aircraft to visually inspect substations in 2015, and is the first utility to receive and use the FAA’s certificate of authorization to perform a mission for research and development purposes beyond visual line of sight.

    Xcel Energy inspects 320,000 miles of electricity and natural gas infrastructure, including more than 1,000 substations, gas regulator stations and dozens of major power plants in eight states. GPS World will carry further news of this flight in a subsequent issue.

    Indoor Nav at Vast Mobile World Congress

    Add Infrared Aiding in Retail Show

    A scalable indoor positioning hybrid technology from Pole Star of Toulouse, France, combining GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, and motion sensors, and MOCA of Barcelona, Spain, with a location-based mobile engagement platform, provided show navigation, guidance and tracking for the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February.

    The joint solution delivers three service levels that combine users’ geolocation with other data to provide expanded contextualized messages. As many as 95,000 show attendees — iOs and Android users alike — were guided through the 240,000 square meters (2.6 million square feet) of the FiraBarcelona, receiving personalized notifications from an intelligent recommendation system based on proximity.

    Using geofencing, the 2,200 exhibitors could interact with attendees and attract them to theirs booths. Finally, indoor location analytics enabled the event organizers to visualize and correlate behavior and preferences of attendees.

    Infrared. Pole Star also announced at the Retail Big Show in New York in January that it is integrating its NAO Campus indoor positioning technology with the Pricer Product Location solution based on Infrared trilateration. The combination will enable shoppers, once inside a store, to optimize their shopping route and be guided to the products and promotions they are looking for. Hyper-local targeting for shoppers and Indoor location-based analytics for retailers and brands are among the benefits touted.

    Pricer, based in Uppsala, Sweden, offers in-store automated product positioning using infrared (IR) communication, combined with tracking algorithms to calculate the position of its electronic shelf labels (ESLs). A typical Pricer label response signal is seen by multiple points in the communication network reading different signal strengths depending on the distance from the label.

    Automated in-store product positioning in retail is a “holy grail” for retailers, according to the company. By mapping in real time where the products are placed on the sales floor using the IR technology, companies can engage customers in the aisles, help customers find products and manage product placement compliance.

  • Sonardyne dynamic positioning fills in for GNSS disruptions

    Bordelon Marine, providers of vessel services to operators in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world, has selected acoustically aided inertial navigation technology from Sonardyne Inc., Houston, for its new ultra-light intervention vessel (ULIV) Brandon Bordelon.

    The dual Ranger 2 Pro DP-INS systems, the highest specification available, will be used to track remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) during inspection, repair and maintenance activities and provide an independent position reference for the vessel’s Marine Technologies Class 2 dynamic positioning system.

    Specialized vessels such as the Brandon Bordelon conventionally rely on GNSS and ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustics  as their primary sources of dynamic positioning reference data.

    However, a vessel’s station-keeping capability can be compromised in the event that the USBL is affected by thruster aeration or noise and the GNSS signal is simultaneously interrupted. The latter is particularly common around equatorial regions and during periods of high solar radiation.

    Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 Pro DP-INS system addresses this operational vulnerability. It aids vessel positioning by exploiting the long term accuracy of Sonardyne’s Wideband 2 acoustic signal technology with high integrity, high update rate inertial measurements. The resulting navigation output has the ability to ride-through short-term acoustic disruptions and is completely independent from GNSS.

    The Brandon Bordelon was delivered at the end of 2015 and is under a 60-day contract with Tidewater Subsea. Designed to support complex inspection, repair and maintenance operations, the vessel features a high-capacity deep-water crane, infrastructure for two work-class ROVs and a large, reconfigurable back-deck area.

    In addition to the system’s deep water positioning performance and safety benefits, DP-INS has been proven to deliver valuable time and cost savings for vessel owners. It does not need a full seabed array of transponders to be installed and calibrated before subsea operations can commence.

    For most subsea tasks, positioning specifications can be met with only one or two transponders deployed on the seabed. Additionally, as the system needs only occasional aiding from the acoustics, transponder battery life is substantially increased and the need to task an ROV to deploy and recover transponders for servicing is reduced.

    The equipment supplied to Bordelon Marine included Sonardyne’s ship-mounted inertial navigation sensor and two HPT 7000 acoustic transceivers. The HPTs have been installed on the Brandon Bordelon through-hull deployment poles and are optimised for tracking and dynamic positioning in ultra-deep water.

    Wes Bordelon, President/CEO Bordelon Marine said, “Equipping the Brandon Bordelon with Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 DP-INS, reflects our commitment to providing high-tech, high-spec equipment on our fit-for-purpose Stingray vessels and ensuring our fleet is safe, efficient and cost-effective.

    “Ranger 2 DP-INS is a mature, field proven technology that addresses operators’ need for a robust, independent DP reference that provides an update rate and accuracy on par with GNSS,” said Ralph Gall, Technical Sales Manager at Sonardyne in Houston. He added, “The Brandon Bordelon joins a significant fleet of vessels which depend upon our acoustically-aided inertial technology for safer and more efficient dynamic positioning operations.”