Sonardyne, Liquid Robotics Collaborate to Improve Data Recovery on Wave Glider

Photo courtesy Sonardyne

 By Priya Potapragada



Sonardyne International Ltd., a manufacturer of maritime technologies and Liquid Robotics, an ocean data services provider, have worked together on fitting a Wave Glider with a Sonardyne high speed acoustic modem to recover logged data on demand without using a survey vessel.



To monitor the seabed, a surveillance tool is used to constrain dynamic reservoir models and with the seabed constantly changing, the surveillance technology has to be precise.  



“The collaboration to deploy an autonomous marine vehicle such as the Wave Glider means that we can offer clients such as Shell cost-effective and safe methods of collecting subsea sensor data in remote deepwater offshore fields.” Said Sudhir Pai, Vice President Operations and Technology at Liquid Robotics Oil and Gas.



With the sensor logging nodes, which operate autonomously, and are designed and manufactured by Sonardyne, are able to remain deployed for several years without intervention. High precision sensors can be fitted including pressure (depth), temperature, inclination, sound velocity and conductivity based on environmental conditions. At intervals, nodes log and time stamp sensor data to its onboard memory and returns to standby until the next measurement cycle.



Shaun Dunn, Global Business Manager, Exploration at Sonardyne says, “this method not only significantly reduces the total cost of operations but it also removes the health and safety risks associated with sending a vessel and crew to sea.”