Inspections
SSM has been involved in ROV inspections in differents industries from environmental near shore surveys to in-shore plants sonar 3D reconstructions.
ROV Inspections
SSM ROV inspection services provides a new approach to near-shore, on-shore and confined spaces underwater inspections. Our ROV fleet operates in different industries where environmental conditions presents a great variety of operational situations.
ROV inspections are extremely cost effective when compared to traditional divers'works. An important aspect for our clients is the risk mitigation during operations. With ROV performing the operations the safety is increased as diver time underwater is reduce to zero. Commercial diving is classified as a “hazardous” operations.
Video Inspections
Being the most common. We can offer from high definition camera to 4K resolution, 360º and stereoscopic vision cameras.
ROV Positioning
This is highly demanded to integrate the data into GIS solutions improving also navigation performance. Acoustic positioning with USBL and velocity logs with DVL can be combined to improve the precision.
Imaging Sonar
Is a complementary system to locate targets at a bigger distance as the camera perception is limited and can be drastically reduced in low-visibility or zero-visibility water conditions in some cases like muddy waters.
Sonar profiler
Sonar profiling is an imaging method that utilizes short-range sonars to provide acoustic images of pipelines. It is frequently used in applications where visual methods are not feasible due to waterline conditions and lack of retrievable information.
3D Scanning Sonar
Scanning sonar can be integrated in our ROVs to reconstruct underwater assets specially when vertical walls are presents or complex structure such as piles or tunnels.
INDUSTRIES
Ports
Water dam
Power plant
Tunnel inspections
Pipeline
Offshore wind farms
Environmental survey
Defence
Our cases
Get to know the different projects that we have made throughtout our years of experience and work.
CASE: Pipe inspections
As an example of use cases of our technology combined is the expertise of inspection inside flooded pipes where we combined position, video and sonar to process and digitized the water pipe intakes with the capability of measuring different parameters depending on the situations such as pipe diameter reduction due to fouling and growth, wall thickness or corrosion. After the post-processing it is possible to represent and navigate virtually over the infrastructure.
CASE: Desalination plant inmisaries
internal inspection
Subsea Mechatronics carried out a sonar survey of the 2 seawater intakes of a desalination plant in Spain using a pipe profiler and visual inspection. It was the first time, that the asset owner could effectively carry out an internal inspection of the full length of the inmisaries, being this the record in length of such an inspection in Spain. The purpose of this work was to provide detailed underwater 3D sonar imaging of the pipes to quantify the biofouling present in the pipes and calculate the head loss due to the mussels’ growth. SSM provided a detailed 3D sonar reconstruction providing details of the manholes and events found in the pipes, that could not be detected by standard visual inspection.
CASE: Inspection and cleaning in
flooded confined spaces
Being highly experienced in complex subsea research tasks, SSM made a clear plan for what kind of equipment was required in order to complete the challenge. This was no ordinary subsea research task, with lots of external factors rendering the use of conventional equipment ineffective. This called for a customized solution comprising cherry picked equipment such as the vehicle, the imaging technology as well as the positioning.
In a time when every single KWh counts, Subsea Mechatronics not only had a business opportunity on their hands; they could also help improve the growing energy concerns becoming a crisis. The guys at SSM knew they had to get creative to fulfill this brief.
CASE: Hydroelectric dam sonar survey
Subsea Mechatronics carried out a sonar survey of a hydroelectric dam facility using a high-resolution scanning sonar in a zero-visibility environment. The purpose of this work was to provide detailed underwater 3D sonar imaging of the submerged areas of the dam’s wall in the upstream side. More specifically, to understand the current state of the facility (depth, sedimentation, wall and culvert, debris and obstructions, etc.) to be used for the engineering project design and execution of construction works required for the culvert gate.
You can visit our technology section to deep dive in our survey capabilities and our ROVs.