• There is a common, understood system including consistent and repeatable processes
• We function in a disciplined and systematic way, almost no matter what happens
• We will have fewer failures in quality of service or product
• People are clear about what to do and how; they don’t have to spend time ‘making things up’ or ‘finding things out’ or reinventing wheels
• We will have more or better business because we can sell to new markets and having the certificate distinguishes you in the marketplace
• We know more quickly if things are going wrong, and where
• We stop spending money or time on the same old problems. Because many have been resolved permanently, and if another comes up, we now have a process and the resources and skills to identify & fix it. Faster, better, cheaper.
• Better management control and reporting – we know how your business is doing and what to look at
• We don’t scratch our head wondering how to respond to tenders or other questions asking about our quality system, because we know!

What’s not to like?  Whether its wind, wave or current (tidal or convection), the oceans are a means of indirectly converting almost limitless amounts of solar energy and the earths rotational inertia (tidal energy) into a form that we can, using existing technology, tap into on a very large scale.  While a very pedantic person might argue that tidal generators are not truly renewable energy sources (they slow the earth’s rotation at an infinitesimally small amount) all these systems are in effect, renewable and clean.

We saw at the show displays of many systems that are up and running in Europe and theUKwhere the offshore renewables sector is an established part of the web of society but not here in theUS.  We have the funding, the technology but it appears not the will.  Why is that?

Though there are a multitude of reasons for why this is so, it appears to me that it comes down to three main reasons:

Economic:  TheUS in recent years has tapped into a windfall of natural gas in the Marcellus shale gas reserves ofPennsylvania.  Though the means of extracting it is controversial, it provides a source of energy that is considered within the population that bothers to consider such things to be relatively clean, cheap, easy to access and abundant.

It has, at least for now, filled a political niche in the national psyche for a “clean” energy source taking the political pressure off the need to develop the thorny issue of developing offshore renewables energy.  True or not, notions that the extraction of shale gas disrupts the rural communities above where the gas lays, that the extraction process of “fracking” may result in contamination to subterranean water sources and that the pressure differential within the rock left after gas extraction has taken place could result in excessive seismic action are all swept under the social carpet as being the rants of environmental radicals.

Socio/Political:  Has anybody else noticed that in say, the last 10 years or so, how every cause or political movement that comes along conducts “Town Hall Meetings” prior to going about a big undertaking?

My admittedly cynical view of these meetings is that the operators of large endeavor understand a community to be one big psyche that will swallow just about anything they chose to throw at it so long as it is consulted nicely.  The organization will encourage the community to air it’s many and varied opinions without rebuttal.  It will make sure that the organizations representative acts as a lightening rod to dissipate the energy of the rancor within the community.   The tempest is short, sweet and isolated.  Once it is dissipated the organization takes great pains to treat the community with the utmost respect while it goes about doing exactly what it intended to do in the first place.

It seems that once that process has been gone through, organizations are much more likely to be able to proceed with their endeavor then if they just go at it and damn the torpedos.

I think I saw the effect of the “damn the torpedos” approach as I stayed last weekend with a friend onCape Cod.  Driving onto theCapeI noticed two moderately large wind generators churning away on dry land.  I thought to myself “that looks like trouble”.  Once I arrived at my friend’s place, I asked them about it and sure enough, they told me that the generators were a source of huge and ongoing contention on the cape with members of the public experiencing any number of apparent effects from the generators.  The uproar is so strong they felt it would not be surprising if the generators were eventually removed.

So, why is it that one set of generators will give a whole population problems with noise and headaches and yet a similar generator in another region of the country will be installed and operated among populations without complaint, and even with pride of the community?  There was nothing special about these generators that I could tell as I parked my car directly below them.  In fact I had to open the door and stick my head out of the car in order to hear them at all.  What I did hear sounded to me as being of a similar band of spectrum as wind in a sail.  I wouldn’t want to live under it but it wasn’t as oppressive as say, a gasoline generator.  The difference between these generators and others was the political manner in which they were installed;  They were apparently installed without first setting up an effective political lightening rod.

I wonder if rather then installing assets around the country in a haphazard manner, the renewable energy industry developed a cohesive and communicable plan and presented that plan to the population in the form of lightening rod campaigns, that they may be a lot further down the road towards reaching the countries stated goals for renewable energy supply and the involved communities would be much the happier.

Social System:  It seems there is a direct correlation between the fact that theUS uses imperial measurement while Europe uses Metric and the fact that theUS has not adopted offshore renewables whileEurope has.

Maybe the true reason for the US delay in taking on offshore renewable energy may lay in the method of passing legislation and the power of powerful lobbyist with interests that directly conflict with those of offshore renewables.

Throughout the 19^th and 20^th century, Metrication occurred throughout Europe,  Australia, New Zealand and others. Many of those governments did so by the so called “Big-Bang” method  [1]by simply passing a law and enforcing it.  Others “metricated” over a longer period but still to a firm plan.  In 1968, after experts in the field testified to congress [2] that the long term benefits of using a precise, decimal system the US planned to follow suit starting in 1975 but a year or two into the effort, the lobbyists who represented the manufacturing industry which was faced with great, though short term, re-tooling expenses, effectively quashed the movement and the US today is still using he increasingly inefficient Imperial measurement system.  I’m afraid I cant give you a reference to prove this.  Lobbyists are tricky that way.

All of the European countries that have adopted offshore renewables are to a greater or lesser degree, socialist.  Right or wrong, the populaces of these countries are willing to allow their governments to educate themselves as to what they believe is best for their country and then propose to parliament legislation to support their findings.  The government is elected to govern, it makes a decision, a law is passed, a permit is granted, a wind farm goes up.  In theUS, it seems that the big decisions fundamental to the direction in which the country chooses to go are not dictated by government but by industry.

I once heard it explained that Parliaments can make really good, or really bad decisions very quickly while Congress is very slow and staid.  Like a conservative financial strategy, the congressional system has provided stability and prosperity for over 200 years (with the exception of the Civil War).  European parliaments on the other hand have had varied and mixed fortunes.  It’s not for me to say which is better or worse system but I do wonder if the tried and true congressional model is able to adequately respond the pressures of the speed of modern business.

In any case, until the energy industry which includes the farm lobby (due to bio-fuel) as well as oil, gas and coal decides it is in their interests to get behind offshore renewables, I’m not going to hold my breath that any very large scale movement towards installation of offshore renewables is going to occur in the US anytime soon.

However, I will continue to attend and support this excellent show.  It is an interesting sector for us to pursue.  Our particular interest is in performing installation site surveys and cable route surveys.  Both are required by experimentalists as well as full scale operations so we feel there is a place for us in this fascinating industry.

Double thrust, triple payload modification to SAAB Seaeye Falcon DR

Dexter,MI, May 16, 2012:  US based underwater technology solutions provider SeaView Systems, Inc. today released their new ROV service line built around a major in-house modification to the tried and true fiber optic SAAB Seaeye Falcon DR ROV.

At first look the modification is a bolt on skid that provides a full second suite of five thrusters to the ROV.  Working in a Master/Slave configuration, the Raptor skid taps into the Falcon DR’s data network and emulates the commands given to the Falcon DR ROV thereby providing double the thrust while providing 100% redundancy of system propulsion with no interference to the original ROV.  Not so readily apparent are electrical and software enhancements which, when integrated with a Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) aided Inertial Navigation System (INS), provide Dynamic Positioning (DP) for performing highly accurate, repeatable HD video and multi-beam sonar surveys (environmental, ordinance disposal, route, asset inspection, and wreck survey) and the stability to perform efficient manipulator work even in low water visibility and strong currents.

Combined mechanical, electrical and software engineering has resulted in a highly capable package that is mobile and ready for operations worldwide off vessels of opportunity unable to accommodate larger, work class vehicles.

“We know the market needs capability, mobility and reliability” said SeaView’s President, Matthew Cook. “So it wasn’t a hard decision for us to continue to commit to the proven Seaeye Falcon DR design and leverage our in-house engineering capabilities and extensive Falcon DR parts inventory to provide what we believe is a novel service line to the underwater marine industry”

The ROV Backbone is used for the LDROV (long distance ROV),  Serpent ROV and  Smart Grapple as well as other less orthodox applications such as mounted to a truss to steer it into position or mounted to an ROV garage to monitor umbilical management for long distance tunnel investigations.

The ROV backbone system was attached to this truss to guide it into position before locking it into place.

The LDROV is capable of 10 000' tunnel investigations. It uses the ROV Backbone for thruster, camera, tooling and lighting control.

The Smart Grapple's actuator, lights, cameras and thrusters are controlled by the ROV Backbone.

SeaView Systems has a strong role to play in the Hydro industry.  We may be best known for our surveys of underwater structures including pipelines and tunnels, penstocks, draft tubes, dams, trash racks etc. but a strong and growing service line is the development of custom underwater tooling.

Robotic technology provides many opportunities to save on cost and time while lowering risk.  We lower or remove risk to personnel, we are not limited in depths that we can work, nor temperature, nor the number of hours on site and we can work in very tight locations.  In some instances, we can perform work faster and more precisely then can be done by a person alone.

I thought that some of the work that we have performed in municipal water may be of interest to the Hydroelectric community so I have submitted an abstract to HydroVision discussing as a case study a major project we have been working on over the last two years in support of J.F. White Contracting Company performing rehabilitation work on part of the aqueduct system feeding the City of New York.

The abstract reads as follows:

Case study of underwater rehabilitation project using custom robotic tooling.

Over a period from Spring 2010 through Fall 2011, underwater technology solutions provider SeaView Systems, Inc. was tasked with building a range of tooling and to support the rehabilitation of an aqueduct system feeding New York City.  The project involve building a remotely controlled grapple to remove 1400lbs of debris, support an Atmospheric Diving Suit (ADS) in the inspection of a valve in 400ft of water, build a series of tools to block off a failed valve and mount a 6’ x 5.5’ x 1” rolled stainless steel plate onto the wall of a concrete shaft also at 400ft of water.
Tools developed included:

• Robotic, surface controlled grapple for removal of debris.
• Locking sump cover with surge relief.
• Submersible electric chain saw capable of cutting out a heavy bronze grating.
• System to position and “fly” a heavy supporting truss into position.
• Robotic core drill to drill 30ea 1” diameter x 18” deep core holes.
• Rock bolt insertion tool.
• Electric torque tool to torque rock bolts to precisely to 150ftlb.

The presentation will illustrate how, by using a modular development approach and teamwork, custom tooling may be developed in an efficient manner.  Our method helps enable underwater construction tasks to be completed in a timely and cost efficient manner bringing assets back online to service communities sooner.

We should hear if it will be accepted by January 27th.  Fingers crossed!!

We believe that there is a lot of demand in Australasia/SE Asia for underwater
technology which is currently inadequately serviced and so, in order to build
on our existing presence in the region, in December ’11/January ’12, Matthew
Cook, President of SeaView Systems, Inc. will be making a 5 week tour of the region
including currently planned stops in Singapore, Malaysia and several stops in
Australia including, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and the Gold Coast.

It is our expectation that much as we have found here in the US, as marine
and inland water related asset managers come to understand the extent of our
capabilities, even more opportunities for the utilization of underwater
technology will become apparent. To support this demand we plan to stage in the
region significant underwater technology assets including a SAAB Seaeye Falcon
Inspection Class ROV and a compact 75HP internally designed and built Work
Class ROV.

We invite any interested parties to make themselves known to us so that Matthew can
schedule a visit during the tour where he can introduce himself, learn more
about your particular situation and where we can discuss how SeaView Systems
can support your operation.

• It was cheaper
• It was quicker to make it ourselves

and most importantly:

• All the other recovery latches that we’ve seen require a re-termination when it’s installed or removed from the umbilical.  On the recovery latch that we built, the bullet and latch can be split apart for removal or clamped around the umbilical for installation.

Our Falcon DR is running from our lifting umbilical winch and LARS while the regular Falcon is running from our new Davit LARS.

Traditionally there have been many different methods of performing accurate measurements. Most are based on either a taught wire or acoustics. Both suffer problems of setup difficulty and expense and accuracy of final measurement.

By exploiting Ring Laser Gyro technology, CDL Ltd. Of Aberdeen, Scotland have pioneered a method for performing spool piece metrology using Inertial Measurement. Their initial method was to use a RDI Workhorse Dopplar Velocity Log aided (to remove velocity errors) and a Paroscientific Digiquartz Depth Sensor (for accurate depth) to aid a dead reckoned position from a Kearfott T16 Ring Laser Gyro. This method was marketed as the CDL MiniSpool system.

The CDL Minipos has another use over spool-piece metrology. SeaView Systems identified the benefit of this system to provide accurate position and attitude in locations in accessible with more conventional navigation means i.e. acoustic positioning. Initially we teamed with Mr. Jeff Snyder of Seavision Underwater Solutions to perform a bathymetric survey under two mothballed aircraft carriers in Newport, RI. From that experience we coined the process “Restricted Access Hydrographic Survey”.

Following up on that experience we deployed the Minipos technology to aid in the remediation of one of the worlds largest uranium mines for the uranium mining company Cameco ( Cigar Lake Mine, in Saskatchewan, Canada).

Since the original MiniSpool system was introduced, CDL has refined the product to include an acoustic link thus tightening accuracy and simplicity of operation.

SeaView believes this technology shows great promise and is an excellent way for a small, competent team running a relatively small but powerful ROV to provide value to the offshore oil and gas industry.

At present, our Falcon DR, capable of diving to 1000m is a good platform for carrying this technology. With the LARS, Winch and ROV all mobilized inside of the one 20’ Control Van/Workshop it represents the cheapest, easiest mobilization package possible. In most waters this package is quite adequate to perform the operations but there are occasions where ocean currents on bottom are in excess of 2 knts. and the Falcon DR, loaded down with equipment will become more difficult to operate.

To answer this limitation SeaView is working on developing the SeaView “Raptor” system. The Raptor is essentially a SAAB Falcon DR but with double the thrusters. We are building in a full extra suite of 5 thrusters into a cradle in which the Falcon DR sits. Expected to come online in Q4, 2011, this enhanced system will result in a very powerful, stable machine that has the capacity to carry payload and operate competently in currents in excess of 3knts.

The chart below compares the Thrust Vs. Surface Area for several different models of ROV on the market.  It illustrates how the new SeaView “Raptor” will provide a vehicle with water current handling capability comparable to the most powerful vehicles in the industry but in a compact, easily mobilized spread.

We see a big future for INS aided acoustic spool-piece metrology both in the US and further afield.  This work is particularly interesting to us as it’s challenging, interesting work which is well suited to our high quality/low volume business model.

The MV SeaView Surveyor in our workshop

“MV SeaView Surveyor” is a 26 foot water ballasted sailing boat which we are converting for use as a cost effective means to get out on the Great Lakes (in good weather) and inshore waters to deploy our new Saab Seayeye Falcon ROV. Darren is working hard on the conversion, setting the boat up with batteries, an inverter, a davit in place of the mast and a cradle to safely hold the Falcon while in transit. This boat design was interesting to us because it allows us to run a 60hp outboard. It will get up and plane to get us to the worksite quickly but once onsite, the water ballast and battery weight will keep the vessel stable so we can operate the ROV from a darkened cabin.

To compliment the new vessel , Geoff is working on integrating HD Video into the new Falcon ROV. We hope that by doing this we will be answering the needs of the science community to be able to record very detailed images; either video or still. Later improvements will include accoustic positioning, multibeam sonar, sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiling.

Darren Linderman fitting the Seaeye electronic rack into the MV SeaView Surveyor

It’s our hope that we can provide the Great Lakes science community with a cost effective platform that will allow us to provide a high standard of data/video colleciton capability at a controlled cost.

The vessel not only can run dual multibeam sonars but can be set up to run LIDAR as well to map surfaces direcly above the water line such as sea walls, bridge abutments, dam walls and the like.

Ive seen some of their data. I dont know of any other inshore spread that can boast this capability.

The Tetra Tech crew kindly took three of us SeaViews out on our local Portage Lake for a demo. Steaming at about 3knts they had half the lake surveyed in no time. Very cool!