Fugro Survey Orders ten Sonardyne Scout Pro USBL Systems
Fugro Survey Pte Ltd. of Singapore has placed an order with Sonardyne International Ltd for ten of the company’s top-of-the-range Scout Pro USBL (Ultra-Short BaseLine) acoustic positioning systems. The systems will be used to provide ROV tracking in support of pipe-lay and touch down monitoring operations and will provide Fugro with the capability of working at ranges in excess of 1,000 metres.
The Scout USBL range was introduced by Sonardyne as a versatile and easy to use subsea tracking system. Scout and Scout Plus are entry level systems that can track one surface vessel and up to six subsea targets at a range of up to 500 metres. The Scout Pro system chosen by Fugro is designed to provide complex survey support through its fully featured software. It provides greater accuracy, additional tracking capabilities and a 1,000+ metre operating range.
Each Scout Pro system will be supplied with a Navigation Controller Unit (NCU) and Wideband Sub-Mini transponders (WSMs) which will enable Fugro to benefit from Sonardyne’s latest generation Wideband signalling technology. The NCU can be used with Fugro’s inventory of Sonardyne LBL equipment whilst the WSM transponders incorporate a responder mode for fast position updates in deep water and are compatible with Fusion USBL systems.
All of the Scout transceivers chosen by Fugro benefit from internal pitch, roll and heading sensors. However, they can also be interfaced to external gyros and vertical reference units (VRUs) on the vessel meaning that they can be expected to achieve a level of accuracy that is within just 0.5% of the slant range from the transceiver to the target being tracked.
The compact design of the transceiver makes it easy to install on a simple over-the-side mount or through a gate valve. Additional features include an aluminium bronze housing proven to withstand prolonged immersion during major projects. The arrays on an, as yet, unspecified number of the transceivers will be supplied with a 30 degree tilt adaptor to provide a “look-back” capability that will provide valuable benefits during some certain types of ROV tracking operation.
