Bibby HydroMap has completed sea trials of DriX, an 8-metre Autonomous Unmanned Survey Vessel (AUSV) developed by iXblue, at the Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm off the North Wales.
The autonomous survey platform has the ability to accommodate a hydrographic and geophysical survey payload and to aid positioning of underwater vehicles, facilitating data collection on a variety of marine projects, according to Bibby HydroMap.
The key purpose of the 5-day trials was to rigorously test the performance and survey capabilities of DriX in a challegning marine environment. Specific locations of interest were identified within the wind farm environment to provide a direct comparison with conventional survey methodologies.
Bibby HydroMap said that the system, fitted with a Teledyne RESON Seabat IDH T50 multibeam echosounder, was able to acquire unprecedentedly clean bathymetry at speeds greater than 8 knots, remaining on the intended survey line in cross-tides in excess of 1.5 knots.
During operations, QPS’s Qimera Live was running on board DriX, but was controlled by technical staff on the support vessel, enabling the fully-processed multibeam echosounder data to be downloaded straight from DriX at the end of each mission. All data is processed in real-time from the support vessel with very little need for further processing ashore, shortening processing timescales and speeding up delivery of critical information, Bibby HydroMap stated.
“DriX has far exceeded our expectations in terms of data quality and performance, and we are delighted to be able to pass this level of quality on to our clients,” said Tom Davenport , Operations Manager at Bibby HydroMap.
Guillaume Edeline , Business Development Manager at iXblue, said: “This really was a milestone for DriX, proving once again its versatility, the accuracy of its data gathering and its stability in a range of sea states. We are excited by the results and the promising prospects for DriX and Bibby HydroMap.”