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By far the greatest use of ROVs around the globe is in their application to the oil and gas industry in the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons. Since the mid-1970s, ROV technology has aided man in his relentless search for energy beneath the sea. Today’s highly sophisticated, capable and reliable work class systems are routinely undertaking operations in water depths greater than 7,000 ft (2,134 m).

Although regulations vary internationally, generally saturation diving techniques are prohibited in water depths greater than 850 ft (259 m) of water. As a considerable percentage of offshore oil and gas reserves are located in water depths in excess of diver depths, the importance of ROV technology is significant.

Man has adapted several standard means of extracting hydrocarbons in various water depths from jackup drilling production rigs in very shallow water to subsea completion, tension leg platforms (TLPs) and spars in deep and ultra deep water, over 5,000 ft (1,524 m). ROV technologies support operations for services such as drilling and completion, installation/construction, inspection/maintenance and repair and other activities from installations such as that shown above left.

Over 60 percent of the world’s ROV systems supporting oil and gas exploitation are engaged in drilling support operations. Systems are utilized in water depths as shallow as 100 ft (30 m) on jackup rigs and as deep as 10,000 ft (3,048 m) on semi-submersibles and drillships. This means that the full range of ROV systems are engaged worldwide to support these activities. Observation ROV systems are typically used in shallow water and when surface trees are utilized. Work class ROV systems are used in deeper water, areas of high current, and when intervention tasks require the use of manipulators, fluid transfer or load bearing capabilities.

If drilling support is a walk in the park for ROV contractors, then installation and construction support is the triathlon of all the support services in the oil and gas ROV industry. These activities are the most demanding, require the most capable equipment and the greatest experience and skill of the ROV crew. Installation and construction support is the realm of the work class ROV. Operating on the critical path as a key element in the development program, ROV systems are used before, during and after the installation of platforms, subsea production systems and others, and the installation, laying, hook-up and commissioning of flowlines, trunklines, export lines, cables and umbilicals.

Military

Military applications for unmanned systems provided the genesis for unmanned underwater vehicle technology. Initially, such systems were developed primarily for undersea observation and the recovery of lost devices and weapons. Since then, the technology has moved steadily forward, bringing with it a directly related increase in operational capability. Unfortunately, this increase in capability brings with it a higher price tag—especially in the military—a fact that may have initially slowed the acceptance of such advanced technology. And more recently, the change in the political climate around the world has caused a refocusing of what the military feels is the primary mission for such systems.

Many of the original applications by the military for unmanned vehicles was in the area of mine countermeasures, where tethered ROVs were much more expendable than a ship or a diver. In addition, there were many programs conducting research into recovery technology and the fledgling arena of untethered vehicles used for search. Prior to the 1990’s, the US Navy’s eyes were focused on the depths of the ocean—the magic number being 20,000 ft (6,096 m), where 98 percent of the ocean floor could be reached. In the US military at that time, there was a need to dominate all aspects of undersea search, work, and recovery to such full ocean depths. It was a critical need, if for no other reason than to remain one up on the perceived threat from the Soviet Union.

In those early days, there was no knowledge of an obvious undersea vehicle program ongoing in the Soviet Union. That soon changed as the Soviet’s concern with the deep ocean and their capability to reach it was unveiled. Unclassified presentations on their programs in unmanned undersea systems, such as those at the Institute of Marine Technology Problems in Vladivostok, where the MT 88autonomous vehicle (see photo to left) was developed, along with many others, soon became common at international conferences.

Although the US and Soviet Union may have led the pack, Europe was not idle. With the transition of ROV technology from the US to Europe in the 1980s, many other vehicle developers emerged, primarily to support North Sea oil fields. Along with that was the maturation of the technology and subsequent application to mine countermeasures. The once dominant PAPvehicles from France (see photo to right) began to see others arriving such as Pluto from Switzerland, Pinguin from Germany, the Eagles from Sweden and many others. Although some limited developments were pursued for deeper application, such as the rather unsuccessful Towed UnManned
Submersible (TUMS) developed for the Royal Navy’s HMS CHALLENGER, mine countermeasures (MCM) was basically the focus of military applications for some time, not the deep ocean thrust that existed in the US and the Soviet Union.

In recent years, a redirection of future military system requirements has been caused by two significant events; the first was the end of the cold war, and the second is the potential of hostilities with smaller countries that could wreak havoc through terrorism or unconventional warfare techniques. Driven by these changes, the US Navy began to rethink its “at sea” strategy and a new focus on littoral warfare began to dominate. MCM became critical—not only for surface ships, but also for submarines. If future battles were to be fought along world coastlines, with mobility a key factor, then safe operating areas needed to be found or established. Thus came one of the biggest changes in military strategy regarding unmanned systems. What had once been discussed only behind closed doors—the use of unmanned vehicles deployed from submarines—was not only out in the open, it was on the World Wide Web. In the US, major moves were made to solicit the development of “offboard sensors” for use from submarines. Contracts were awarded for the NMRS (Near Term Mine Reconnaissance System) and the LMRS (Long Term Mine Reconnaissance System). The threat had changed and the NMRS, LMRS and other versions of shallower water systems began to achieve a foothold in the US Navy.

In Russia, where the most significant unmanned undersea systems of the former Soviet Union were developed, the trend moved from secret military applications to private enterprise, as most of the institutes moved into a financial fight for survival. The cold war had ended—the game and the rules had changed.

Today, tethered ROVs are available for hire from industry, or industry is contracted to operate navy owned systems. The future thrust in the military will be toward autonomous vehicles that are not only capable, but low cost. The technology being developed in academia, and being fielded in the offshore oil fields, will soon find its way into military systems of the future, whether for intelligence collection, search, reconnaissance, mine countermeasures or various other applications. ROVs and AUVs will both play a major role in the military in the future.

ACADEMIC/SCIENTIFIC

Technology has taken deep-sea researchers far into the depths since the early expeditions of the H.M.S. Challenger during the 1870s, when the first comprehensive samples of life in the deep ocean were collected. Today, there are several methods to obtain data on benthic communities—from trawls to manned submersibles–but the technological sophistication of ROVs and camera sleds has allowed the biology and ecology of deep-sea habitats and organisms to be efficiently studied. Although many scientists still prefer manned submersibles, unmanned undersea systems will provide the primary means of obtaining scientific knowledge in the future. Their ability to obtain high quality photographic and video documentation of the dive site will allow them to reach previously unobtainable locations. In particular, they will provide the scientist with access to populations in rugged terrain, a topography where even the age old trawl is useless.

The first deep ROV in the United States designed from the outset to support oceanographic science missions is the Woods Hope Oceanographic Institution’s Jasonvehicle (see photo to left). This 19,685 ft (6,000-m) system has completed science missions ranging from the survey of ancient ship wrecks in the Mediterranean to performing geological surveys at hydrothermal vent sites on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Jason uses electric motors for its thrusters, pan/tilt, and manipulator, thus avoiding the need for a noisy and less efficient hydraulic power system and providing more precise control capabilities. Jason system has made many significant contributions to deep-sea oceanographic research and continues to work all over the globe. URI/IFE’s Hercules ROV is one of the first science ROVs to fully incorporate a hydraulic propulsion system and is uniquely outfitted to survey and excavate ancient and modern shipwrecks.

Many of the concepts applied to Jason have been adopted by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in the development of an ROV dedicated to scientific missions—the Tiburon (1997), which cost over $6 million US dollars to develop and is used primarily for midwater and hydrothermal research on the West Coast of the US. (Shown below) Missions for which it is designed include:

• Instrument placement, retrieval and support.
• In situ experimentation.
• Ecological studies and observations (midwater and benthic).
• Sampling and light coring.
• Surveys of environmental parameters.

The Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility ROPOS system is continually used by several leading ocean sciences institutions and universities for challenging tasks such as deep-sea vents recovery and exploration to the maintenance and deployment of ocean observatories.

n line with the academic development of all electric ROVs is the all electric Quest ROV was developed by ALSTOM Automation Schilling Robotics in the US. Such technology provides a nice match to the academic requirements of quiet and efficient ROVs.

In Japan, the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC) is developing a family of Dolphin ROVs for scientific missions and for recovery of the Shinkai manned submersibles. The Dolphin 3K, a 9,843 ft (3,000-m) ROV, has been used for geological and biological research operations. More recently, they have completed the development of the Kaiko, which has reached the deepest part of the ocean—37,000 plus feet (11,278 m) in the Mariana Trench.

The Institut Francais de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), long a developer and user of systems for deep exploration, has developed a 19,685-ft (6,000-m) ROV for scientific missions. Called Victor, the ROV became operational in 1998.

Today, the greatest strides being made in the academic community revolve around the development of autonomous undersea vehicles (AUVs), with test beds existing in many universities and research institutions around the world. One of the most well known vehicle is the Odyssey class of AUVs (right), built by personnel in the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), through the support of the Office of Naval Research and the Sea Grant College Program. The vehicles are designed for operation to depths of 19,685 ft (6,000 m). At least five vehicles, which have recently become commercially available, have been built to date.

Another AUV that has been used effectively in oceanographic research is the Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE) built by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. ABE was designed to address the need for long term monitoring of the seafloor. While manned submersibles and ROVs allow intensive study of an area, they can remain on station for only hours, days or weeks. Consequently, a system that can remain in an area gathering data to fill the time voids between submersible and ROV visits would provide another level of more detailed information on temporal variations.

The academic community, due in part to the limited funding available for vehicle development, has become adept at developing very capable yet low cost vehicles. The AUV shown to the left, being developed at Florida Atlantic University in the US, can be mass-produced from non-metallic pressure housing castings and will provide an effective tool in the future for investigating the world’s oceans.