Delft University of Technology
Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Transport Technology
M.J. van der Werf Design analysis of an autonomous pipeline survey system: SOSU (Surface Oriented Survey Unit) Masters thesis, Report 88.3.OS.2474, Transport Engineering and Logistics.
The costs of a pipeline survey can be reduced, if the use of a survey vessel during the survey can be eliminated. For that reason, the possibility of using an autonomous survey system (without a survey vessel) is discussed in this report. The intention is to create a survey unit that can work for six weeks, without manual support and operating at a distance of maximum ten kilometers from the pipelay vessel. The system is called Surface Orientated Survey Unit (SOSU) and is controlled from the pipelay vessel with a radio link.
From a summary of the ROV tasks during pipelay operations, a selection is made of the most important tasks that have to be carried out by the SOSU. Together with an overview of the work procedure of the survey unit, enough data is available to establish the design requirements.
Several configurations of the SOSU are investigated. The final design is build up with a bottom crawling vehicle on the seabed and a buoy at the water surface, connected with each other with an umbilical. In the buoy the power supply is situated, together with the umbilical winch and the equipment for the radio link with the pipelay vessel. The buoy can hoist the vehicle, and with the vehicle connected to the buoy, the entire unit can sail on own power from the vessel to location. If the SOSU is not used, it can be stored on deck of the pipelay vessel.
Reports on Transport Engineering and Logistics (in Dutch)
