ROV & USV Integration Demonstrates Remote Subsea Operations

ACUA Ocean and Forssea Robotics have completed joint integration trials in Plymouth, demonstrating fully remote subsea inspection using a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) deployed from an Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV).

Carried out under a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), the campaign paired Forssea Robotics’ 170kg ARGOS ROV with ACUA Ocean’s USV Pioneer. Over three weeks of testing, including six days of at-sea operations, the team completed more than 40 deployments and up to eight launch-and-recovery cycles in a single day.

The integrated system also operated in two-meter waves south of the Plymouth breakwater with no reported impact on the ROV. The trials assessed the system’s ability to support ROV operations from an uncrewed vessel in conditions that can interrupt conventional vessel-based operations.

Subsea positioning was provided by a pole-mounted Sonardyne Mini-Ranger 2 ultra-short baseline (USBL) system on USV Pioneer, tracking a WSM6+ transponder fitted to ARGOS. Using manual and dynamic-positioning station keeping, Pioneer held the ROV on task in degraded conditions.

Operations reached water depths exceeding 20 meters with up to 35 meters of tether deployed. The campaign included a test inspection of The Poulmic wreck, while a seabed feature and concrete target block were also located and filmed in Cawsand Bay. At-sea operations included conditions with one-meter waves, average winds of 18 knots and gusts of 20 to 30 knots.

Neil Tinmouth, CEO ACUA Ocean, commented, “These trials prove we can open a weather window that conventional crewed vessels cannot work in, giving operators a wider weather window for inspection campaigns. Just as importantly, running inspection campaigns from an uncrewed surface vessel takes significant cost out of the work – fewer support vessels, fewer people offshore and far less weather-related downtime.”

Throughout the trials, the two systems operated as a single remotely supervised package controlled from the ACUA Ocean Remote Operations Centre at Turnchapel Wharf. Forssea Robotics simultaneously supervised operations from its headquarters in Sète, France, while one dive was live streamed to Eckernförde, Germany, for the Cyber Innovation Hub of the Bundeswehr.

The integration combines USV Pioneer with Forssea Robotics’ compact, 100% web-controllable ARGOS ROV, which uses a bespoke “plug & play” USV integration kit. ARGOS is designed to carry a range of payloads for inspection, survey and light-intervention applications.

The companies are targeting offshore energy operators, subsea inspection, repair and maintenance providers, critical national infrastructure security applications and survey companies. The system is intended to reduce reliance on large crewed support vessels, extend operational windows and reduce personnel exposure and the carbon footprint associated with offshore ROV operations.

Gautier Dreyfus, CEO Forssea Robotics, added, “All of us at Forssea are hugely proud of this milestone and impressed by Pioneer’s sea state capabilities. Seeing how smoothly the ROV integration and the multiple launch-and-recovery sequences went over the past few weeks was hugely satisfying. My congratulations to the ACUA engineering teams – we are excited to see what comes next.”

Following completion of the Plymouth trials, the integrated ROV–USV system is available for offshore campaigns.