BP DR PETER COLLINSON CONFERENCES USVs UNMANNED SURFACE VESSELS SEAWORK 2020 SOUTHAMPTON JUNE INTERNATIONAL MARINE EXHIBITIONS HYBRID PROPULSION

PETER COLINSON - Chairman - Senior Subsea and Environmental Specialist, BP International Limited

Peter Collinson is BP’s Senior Subsea and Environmental specialist in Upstream Technology. He leads BP Upstream’s approach in the use of Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS), for subsea inspection and across numerous Upstream user groups.

His background is in marine ecology, corporate crisis response, enterprise risk management and maritime and satellite technology. Peter holds a PhD in Marine Ecology and is a Fellow of ImarEST and a chartered Marine Scientist. Regarding ‘MAS’ he is still seeking the robotic ‘swiss army knife of the sea’!

It’s been said we know more about the surface of the moon than the world’s oceans, but that could soon change with the advance of marine autonomous systems (MAS). Loaded with sensors and cameras, these aquatic robots can capture data from the world’s oceans faster, safer and cheaper than ever before.

MAS, which include both autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), help BP freely explore its remote offshore operating environments. These vehicles can transmit extraordinary amounts of data in near real-time, so scientists can accurately monitor the oceanic environment, assess risks, or effectively manage a crisis.

Battery-powered and pre-programmed, MAS can quickly launch from sea, shore or sky and remain independently active in the ocean for up to months at a time. While autonomous by design, you can communicate with the vehicles by satellite to give navigation commands or receive data. At the end of the mission, a surface vessel picks them up. Such systems have actually been around since the 1950s. But it’s only in recent years, as technology has advanced and costs fallen, that these vehicles have become ready to take over underwater surveillance duties.

BP is currently putting MAS to the test; it has partnered with manufacturer Oceaneering for a large-scale AUV trial to survey pipelines and subsea infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico, ahead of a full roll-out.

Revealing the big picture

BP’s global environmental response expert, Peter Collinson, says: “MAS open up a new scale of environmental assessment: whether that’s natural change, or the effects of industry operations. With more data, we have a clearer insight of what’s going on.

While BP has a long history of using robotic underwater vehicles, autonomous capability is relatively new, as Joe Little, senior technology consultant in BP’s digital innovation organisation, explains: “We use large-scale remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and divers, but these need to be deployed and supported by very large crews and vessels.”

Unlike ROVs, which need to be tethered to and controlled by a ship, an AUV can quickly launch and get straight to work. This is a massive advantage in an emergency, when greater awareness and faster response times can help minimise environmental damage.

Little adds: “The advancement of robotics has moved us to an entirely new class of vehicles that are significantly smaller and more agile. They’re also considerably lower in cost [than ROVs], which means we can use more of them to multiply the data we can get, and therefore make more informed decisions.”

Combined with a better understanding of the environment, the low cost of the vehicles could lead to more frequent and detailed inspections of subsea infrastructure, giving earlier warning of any potential issues.

As well as this, in some situations, MAS avoids the need to send divers into the water, and allows exploration of areas that were previously inaccessible or inhospitable.

Underwater visibility

MAS offer more than just data in quantity. Quality is also improving. Murky images of the deep are now replaced by crystal clear feeds and pictures. For example, an AUV has photographed individual bolts on a sunken military boat more than 1km under the ocean’s surface – a very useful feature during high-resolution surveys for sensitive species and archaeological artefacts.

Visibility is also improved by being able to access and examine exact locations. “We can now repeatedly measure the same square metre of seabed up to 3km deep, rendering objects in 3D and detecting change over time,” explains Collinson.

This is a radical improvement on current underwater surveying techniques like grab samples, that involve taking intermittent photos of an area.

Collinson says: “We might have just 100 images of 1,000 square kilometres of ocean seabed: tiny pinpricks of information across a vast area. With MAS, we’re going to flip that around so we’ll know everything with just a few pinpoints of uncertainty.”

Rapid strike

In 2010, Wave Glider surface vehicles were used during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response to monitor for oil on the sea surface. Five years later, BP teamed up with the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) to test underwater vehicles’ rapid-strike capability in the North Sea.

Responding to a simulated incident in an oilfield west of Shetland, a Seaglider AUV was launched to monitor the presence of hydrocarbons in the ocean. Diving up to 500m deep and surfacing regularly to transmit near real-time data back by satellite to decision-makers onshore.

“The data was filtered and became a new layer on our common operating response system. With one click you could see concentrations of hydrocarbon, temperatures, depth and track position,” says Collinson.

Pool of knowledge

If the trials in the Gulf of Mexico are successful, BP plans to employ a fleet of AUVs to continuously monitor these pipelines, and may also expand the trial to other regions.

Back on dry land, BP regularly runs tests and demonstrations at the Marine Research Innovation Centre (MRIC) at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.

Collinson says: “Through membership of the MRIC, we get access to more than 20 years of autonomous systems technology and knowledge. It’s a great forum for us to work with manufacturers and peers, and learn from sectors beyond oil and gas that may be more advanced with these systems.”

Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better in the underwater world. Small in both size and investment price, microsubs are a new class of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that can work collectively in a shoal to record a highly detailed picture of the underwater environment – and fast. “We’re adapting a microsub to perform environmental surveying that would normally be done at considerable cost using large-scale AUVs or remotely operated vehicles (ROVs),” says Joe Little, technology principal in BP’s digital innovation team.

These underwater watchdogs will also frequently patrol subsea infrastructure to provide early warning of any potential problems. Joe’s partner in this ambitious project, global environmental response expert, Peter Collinson is quoted: “When you have numerous units working intelligently, the speed of work and the volume of data and information you get is very impressive.” But for the moment this is just theory, to take the next step BP has partnered with manufacturer, Planet Ocean, the Marine Robotics Innovation Centre (MRIC) at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, and the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) to fine-tune the technology ahead of its first trial in the North Sea in December. If successful, the plan is to roll out a shoal of microsubs for environmental and operational monitoring, as well as crisis response planning, as soon as next year.

With the oil prices low and the industry looking for ways to minimise costs while remaining safe and efficient, Collinson says this is the perfect time to trial cheaper alternatives to the equipment currently used for deepwater inspection. “At the moment, we’re using the HUGIN AUV, which is essentially a 850kg submarine. While it has an endurance of around 30km and an incredible number of sensors, it does need a ship at the surface to monitor it. “Microsubs are a radical change from anything that’s been done before. We don’t need ships; we don’t need people at sea: we’ve the ability to launch from almost anywhere. We believe they offer exceptional potential.”

The theme of the 2020 conference will be ‘USV’s growing role in the Commercial Marine Market’. This half day Conference session will focus on Unmanned Surface Vessels and how their roles are developing in the Survey, Oceanographic, Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas, Transport and Defence sectors. The USV market was estimated at $534m in 2018 and with significant investment in the manufacture and development of advanced technology, is projected to reach $1,020 million by 2023. This session will highlight how the role of USV’s is making a positive impact in these sectors and how they can benefit future business. The 2020 Conference will be chaired by Peter Collinson, Senior Subsea and Environmental Specialist, BP International Limited.

Peter Collinson

Brett Phaneuf

Dan Hook

Neil Tinmouth

James Williams

Alex Langley

Dr Katrina Kemp

Simon Cheeseman

The theme of the 2020 conference will be 'Real World Implementation of Hybrid Propulsion Solutions'. With Government legislation and environmental considerations key to reducing emission levels, this half day Conference session will explore the progress being made with hybrid propulsion in the commercial marine and workboat markets. Gain insight into case studies which demonstrate where hybrid propulsion is successfully making a difference – review the benefits to business and engage in the discussions on the challenges faced by the industry. The 2020 Conference will be chaired by Alan Cartwright, Director of Blabey Engineering Limited - a maritime consultancy.

Alan Cartwright

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The Seawork Conferences are a must for all involved in the commercial marine industry who wish to explore the challenges, changes and emerging opportunities in today’s and tomorrow’s commercial marine and workboat sector.
Returning for 2020, the Seawork Commercial Marine Conferences will deliver updates and insights in the fast moving Unmanned Surface Vessel and Hybrid propulsion markets.

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