AUV Market ReportA Pivotal Year for AUVsA Pivotal Year for AUVs in the Oil & Gas Sector in the Oil & Gas SectorBy Eduardo Ribeiro, Douglas-WestwoodBy Eduardo Ribeiro, Douglas-WestwoodUVs are on their way. With vast scope for their ap- or to provide a means of observing physical, chemical and plication, autonomous underwater vehicles are ? nally biological processes. AUVs can be used to survey an area in a Againing pace in the commercial sector. The technol- regular pattern or to follow a linear feature such as a pipeline.ogy, which has its origins in military activities such as mine The bene? ts of AUVs, compared to ROVs, manned vessels counter-measure and rapid environmental assessment (MC & and towed vehicles also include operability in a wide variety REA), also has a strong presence in research activities, from of water depths and where surface vessels cannot be used due research mapping to environmental sensing. In fact, the mili- to surface restrictions/obstruc-tions. They have a wide range tary and research sectors have strong links which enable col- of deployment options ranging from manual to dedicated ves-laboration and, therefore, some units can be used across the sels; and can help reduce threats to personnel by increasing sectors. The two sectors currently form 97% of AUV demand. either the distance between hazard and operator, or by per-However, Douglas-Westwood’s Word AUV Market Report forming reconnaissance in advance of manned operations.2014-2018 forecasts an annual growth of 36% in the com- The most recent use of an AUV unit with wide media cover-mercial sector, predominantly driven by deepwater oil & gas age is the Blue? n 21 in the search for the missing MH370 activities, expanding the share of the total market from 3% in ? ight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014. This ve-2014 to 8% in 2018. hicle carries multiple sensors and payloads, and battery with endurance of up to 25 hours (at 3 knots), reaching 4,500m AUV Overview deep it is providing data which creates a 3D map of the area. AUVs have no umbilical connecting them to a host support The attempt follows the successful U.S. mission in 2011, vessel (as opposed to remotely controlled vehicles [ROVs]) as which used three REMUS 6000s in search of the Air France they have the advantage of carrying both on-board power and 447, downed in 2009 when ? ying from Rio de Janeiro to Par-the computer capability to travel a pre-set path through the wa- is. The REMUS vehicles, which have an endurance of up to ter, using a combination of internal and external posi¬tioning 22 hours reaching 6,000 meters water depth, were the main sources as well as sensors that give direction, depth, altitude tool used to spot the plane’s ? ight recorders in waters almost and speed. AUVs, however, do not provide real time data such 4,000 meters deep.as video. They are used by civilian researchers and academ-ics, commercial survey and inspection companies and by the Key Developmentsworld’s militaries to either provide information about the sea- There are some key developments which should enable bed, identify objects on the seabed or in the water column, strong commercial uptake from 2014. These include sensors, May 201424 MTRMTR #4 (18-33).indd 24 MTR #4 (18-33).indd 24 5/12/2014 10:49:31 AM5/12/2014 10:49:31 AM