A team of Engineers led by Associate Professor Karl Sammut, Associate Professor Fangpo He, and Dr Jimmy Li from the Intelligent Systems Research Group are exploring the potential use of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for autonomously inspecting deep sea pipelines.

One of the major advantages of Flinders’ AUV would be its ability to operate autonomously, without being tethered to a tender vessel above as in the case of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).

Associate Professor Karl Sammut said that rapidly increasing numbers of subsea completions and associated flowlines to the surface posed significant entanglement risks for existing ROVs.

“An AUV incorporating monitoring technology that can navigate itself over long distances, stay underwater for extensive periods, and potentially recharge its batteries while submerged and offers a very cost effective and versatile option for pipeline operators as opposed to ROVs,” Associate Professor Sammut said.

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The AUV would incorporate bathymetric sonar and video imaging devices for inspecting pipeline and seabed conditions.

Associate Professor Sammut said the AUV would be equipped with an inertial navigation system and have the ability to scan and map the seabed topography in order to guide its inspection route. Additional information from acoustic beacons and magnetometers would be used to guide the AUV along the pipeline.

Pipeline data will be collected and stored on the AUV. However, researchers at one of Flinders partners, Curtin University, are examining the potential to develop a network whereby information could be transmitted to shore via the pipeline itself through nodes attached to the pipe.

Flinders is one of six universities taking part in the Subsea Pipeline Collaboration Cluster which is part of a $3.5 million research project commissioned by the CSIRO Wealth From Oceans initiative. The Cluster is led by the University of Western Australia and also includes Monash University, the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney and Curtin University of Technology.

Flinders University, through its Intelligent Systems Research Group, received $409,000 in funding to develop an AUV concept vehicle.

“The critical problems to be considered include collision avoidance and manoeuvrability, autonomous docking and path planning, to enable the vehicle to operate in complex environments.”

Associate Professor Sammut said the Flinders team is currently developing its AUV on a realistic virtual reality simulator and hoped to start pool trials of its physical prototype later this year.

“With a clear industry need for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Flinders is keen to engage with petroleum and pipeline industry stakeholders who may wish to partner with the University in the construction and testing stages of this project,” he said.

Associate Professor Fangpo He said the AUV project “is similar to one that is currently being undertaken in the North Sea between England and Norway, where they experience similar problems of seabed movement around the pipeline.”

“However, we believe there is much to be learned through our experiments due to the fact that pipelines have never before been laid so deep below sea level before,” Associate Professor Fangpo He said.

“The biggest challenge posed by the deep water environment is the complexity of operating an AUV over long periods of submerged activity with little or no human intervention,” she said.

“This challenge defines the need for advanced control, navigation, imaging, and reasoning techniques as well as improved power systems. These areas form the core expertise of our research group.”