A new tie-up between a Netherlands-headquartered subsea services firm and a Scottish university hope the application of deep learning could provide a breakthrough in automating subsea pipeline inspections. Services provider N-Sea and the University of Strathclyde’s Institute of Sensors were recently awarded funding from the Data Lab Innovation Centre.
“Subsea inspection services have been transformed by the advent of cheaper, more accurate sensors and higher-resolution imaging equipment,” the funders say. “The ease with which operators can view their assets and the measurements that can be taken mean that installations are being examined and tracked in greater details than ever before.”
Yet, Data Lab reports, some parts of this process are still manual and slows the annotation and interpretation of the images and data recorders done by remotely operated vehicle (ROV), pilots, and engineers. This limits the speed at which the results can be compiled and passed on to the operator.
According to David Murray, N-Sea’s survey and inspection data centre manager, the approaches and techniques the researchers are exploring “have never before been attempted in a subsea environment. We hope the project will transform pipeline inspection operations…By working closely together, we aim to automate the inspection process and operate ROVs at previously impossible speeds.”
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