Interview
David Lane, CEO · SeeByte
What is your assessment of the maturity of the AUV technology and market, in general? Lane The development of AUVs and their commercialization for the military and offshore markets has been a slow process. We are still on the curve of acceptance, as although there are several vehicles technologies in existence that have been commercialized, they have not been sold and are not selling as was predicted in the late 90s. The market remains cautious, as is the nature with new technology. Although far from reaching market maturity, subsea technology has to a certain extent shaken off many of the doubts about reliability that has held it back and has made the leap into the mainstream, becoming an enabler for deep-water projects and a provider of costeffective solutions. What technological benchmarks are critical? Lane It will all come down to the SMARTS. Hardware that can provide endurance in extreme environments is already available. But, true autonomy is still a good way off. By true autonomy I mean an ROV that can reason and intervene without any direct human inputs. With SMART ROVs the pilots will become mission observers. SeeByte has been working hard at delivering true autonomy. We will (have) sustained investment over the next three years; investment (that) will be used to provide enhanced awareness of the ROV/AUV environment and to develop and test 3D deliberative planning and mission
SeeByte announced the start of SMART UUV 3000; a three-year program aiming to productize smart Unmanned Underwater Vehicle software solutions that will enable Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) to automatically tackle complex tasks such as inspection of risers, jackets, manifolds, chains, wellheads, rigs, ship hulls and harbors including searching complex areas and intervention tasks on known structures.
32 MTR
April 2008
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