Offshore staff
SOUTHAMPTON, UK –More than 900 AUVs will be required over the next decade, says a report by Douglas-Westwood Ltd. While the largest demand is for military application, the oil and gas companies moving into deeper waters has created a demand for AUVs to map seabeds and for deepwater installations.
"Developments in IT and power systems, together with many years accumulated experience of operating tethered remotely operated vehicles are having transformational impact," said John Westwood in releasing the "AUV Gamechanger Report 2008-2017."
"The growing need for many facets of ocean observation also offers great potential for AUVs not only to enhance the performance of conventional ship-based operations, but also to operate in difficult-to-access areas such as below the arctic ice," Westwood added.
"The 'inspection', 'work,' and 'hybrid' groups, to date only have small populations and these are mainly associated with the commercial oil and gas sector where use of AUVs is still a small apart from specific areas such as oil and gas industry deepwater survey," said Paul Newman, lead researcher on the study.
09/26/2007
