Marine technology company Kongsberg Maritime has completed the first installation of its new dynamic positioning software that allows operators to use a vessels own system to help cut costs of subsea survey and construction projects.
Kongsberg is running its APOS (Acoustic Positioning Operator System) Survey software on Bibby Offshore’s vessel Olympic Bibby.
The technology has been developed to provide a cost-effective means of subsea survey and construction operations by allowing a surveyor to use the vessel’s HiPAP system on board.
Acoustic interrogations are interleaved or run simultaneously with the vessel’s dynamic positioning system updates, without making changes to the vessel’s APOS software or installation parameters.
The new APOS Survey operator station enables surveyors to use Kongsberg’s HiPAP High Precision Acoustic Positioning system, to deliver accurate survey results simultaneously, whilst the HIPAP is still utilised as a dynamic positioning reference.
APOS Survey station offers full LBL and SSBL and is said to deliver quicker mobilisation times. It is designed for both permanent and temporary installation on vessels, negating the mobilisation cost and time associated with over the side portable transducers.
The software communicates directly with the HiPAP transceiver, enabling the surveyor to operate independently of the bridge.
With APOS Survey, the surveyor can interface local survey grade sensors, IMU, gyro and GNSS, set up lever arms and load sound velocity profiles independent of the vessel.
Ed Fennell, sales manager, Subsea of Kongsberg Maritime’s Aberdeen base said: “The software safely integrates into the vessel’s HiPAP system through a high speed optically-isolated serial connection to maintain independence from the vessel’s Dynamic Positioning (DP) network, and allows the bridge crew to maintain full control of what is shared with APOS Survey.
Robin Longstaff, survey manager at Bibby Offshore, said: “The built in software offers great ease of operation and fully integrates with our existing survey suite, which eliminates the need for further re-training of staff.
“Added to this is its ability to operate independently from the vessel’s sensors and settings, which allows us to integrate our survey grade sensors thus unlocking the full positioning potential of the vessel’s HiPAP. APOS Survey also allows us to quickly and easily add additional ROV transceivers for increased functionality.”