Cloud service allows pilots in multiple locations to control ROV

Offshore staff

ABERDEEN, UK — HonuWorx, with the support of an Offshore Wind Growth Partnership development grant, has developed and tested HonuMove, a cloud-based service for controlling and supervising ROVs.

In the offshore wind sector, the company says wind farm operators can reduce the costs and address safety and environmental concerns through progressive de-crewing of support vessels.

HonuMove, which has a development grant from the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership, is said to expand the capabilities of the HonuWorx cloud architecture introduced in 2021 to remotely support subsea operations with live video streaming, remote system access and team collaboration.

The new service adds a remote piloting module that allows geographically distributed pilots to request and take control of a subsea robotic vehicle directly from the cloud platform. The scalable cloud architecture means that users seeking to access live operations are not restricted to a single physical location, so trained pilots are not obliged to travel either offshore or to a remote operations center. Plus, the system’s modular architecture allows it to support vehicles from different manufacturers.

HonuMove supports 24-hour operations with clients able to transfer communications and control between teams in different time zones. This arrangement also improves access to onshore technical support, HonuWorx adds.

The company plans to offer HonuMove as a turnkey integrated service, configured for projects of various durations.

The service has been demonstrated during control of the VALOR observation class ROV manufactured by Seatronics. From a test tank in Aberdeen, remote control was proven from multiple locations in the UK and the US using different communications modes, including satellite and 4G LTE.

02.09.2024