General Robotics Limited has won a substantial order for its ROVolution simulator from DeepOcean AS the subsea services provider. The simulator is being used to train pilots for DeepOcean's Kystdesign Installer and Supporter ROVs, working from ships and oil platforms in the North Sea and the Mediterranean.
Business is booming for DeepOcean and the company urgently needs to train more Installer pilots. The company initially relied on recruiting experienced ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) pilots and then cross-training them on the Installers offshore, but as the volume of work grew, on-the-job training became too slow and expensive. GRL was commissioned to adapt its generic ROVolution simulator for the Installer ROVs. Working closely with Kystdesign and DeepOcean, GRL took the command signals from the Installer control console and linked them to the ROVolution simulator so pupils can sit at their usual control console and feel as though they are “flying” the real Installer.
It takes a new pilot, with no prior ROV experience, around two years of training to gain DeepOcean's certificate of competence. Using the ROVolution simulator, pupils can notch up the training hours far more quickly and cheaply than using the Installers at sea. A real work environment is also not the best place to train new pilots. The company plans to train 35 additional pilots, with no previous ROV experience, by the end of the year.
DeepOcean plans to extend its use of ROVolution to learning new tasks and scenarios, particularly job simulations, so pilots are familiar with the work to be done before they go to sea.
"With ROVolution we believe we have a simulator that will soon pay for itself - more qualified pilots, can be deployed more flexibly which is making our off-shore operations more efficient," said Sven Storesund, Superintendent ROV/Survey at DeepOcean. "We can now give existing pilots refresher and scenario training on-shore. A unique aspect of the simulator is that you can play around with new techniques which would be prohibitively expensive, and possibly dangerous, using the ROV for real."
"DeepOcean is an innovative, agile operator looking for best in class technology to give them competitive edge in a technology based industry," said Dr Jason Tisdall, Director of Business Development, General Robotics Limited. "Working with them has given us a detailed insight into the requirements of smaller operators. DeepOcean know what we can do, and they are now considering upgrading to our tether management system and Navipac navigation and survey software.”
ROVolution is a real-time simulator which hydrodynamically models any ROV, using cost-effective PC hardware running Windows XP for ROV pilot training, manipulator operator training, subsea task planning and access simulation.