• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.361-370
• /
• 2020

We developed a heavy-duty work class ROV trencher named URI-T (Underwater robot it's trencher) that can conduct burial and maintenance tasks for underwater cables and small diameter pipelines. It requires various supporting systems, including a dynamic positioning (DP) vessel, launch and recovery system (LARS), A-frame, and winch in order to perform burial tasks because of its dimensions (6.5 m × 5.0 m × 4.5 m, 20 t) and the tough working environment. However, operating a DP vessel has disadvantages as it is expensive to rent and operate and it is difficult to adjust the working schedule for some domestic coast construction cases. In this paper, we propose a method using a barge instead of a DP vessel to avoid the above disadvantages. Although burying the cable and pipeline using a barge has lower working efficiency than a DP vessel, it can save construction expenses and does not require a large crew. The proposed method was applied over two months at the construction of the water supply in Yokji-do, and the results were verified.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.300-311
• /
• 2019

An ROV trencher is a type of heavy-duty work class ROV equipped with high-pressure water jet tools for cutting into the sea floor and burying cables. This kind of trencher is mostly used for PLIB operations. This paper introduces the development of this kind of ROV trencher, which has a 698 kW power system, with a 250 kW hydraulic system and two 224 kW water jet systems. The project was launched in January 2014. After four years of design, manufacturing, and system integration, we carried out two sea trials near the Yeongilman port (about 20-30 m in depth) in Pohang to evaluate the system performance in November 2017 and August 2018. Through tests, we found that most of specifications were satisfied, including a maximum bury depth of 3 m, maximum bury speed of 2 km/h, and maximum forward speed of 1.54 m/s.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.289-299
• /
• 2019

Various sizes of ROVs are being utilized in offshore industrial, scientific, and military applications all around the world. Because of innovative developments in science and technology, image acquisition devices such as sonar devices and cameras have been reduced in size and their performance has been improved. Thus, we can expect better accuracy and higher resolution even in the case of exploration using a small ROV. The purpose of this paper is to prepare a standard procedure for the identification of unidentified hazardous materials found during the National Oceanographic Survey. In this paper, we propose an IDEF (Integrated DEFinition) method modeling technique to identify unidentified targets using a small ROV. In accordance with the proposed procedure, an ROV survey was carried out on target No.16 with a four-ton-class fishing boat as a support vessel on September 18th of 2018 in the sea near Daebu Island. Unidentified targets, which were not known by the multi-beam data obtained from the ship, could be identified as concrete pipes by analyzing the HD camera and high-resolution sonar images acquired by the ROV. The whole proposed procedure could be verified, and the survey with the small ROV required about 10 days to identify the target in one place.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.168-177
• /
• 2019

KRISO (Korea Research Institute of Ship & Ocean Engineering) started a project to develop the core algorithms for autonomous intervention using an underwater robot in 2017. This paper introduces the development of the robot platform for the core algorithms, which is an ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) type with one 7-function manipulator. Before the detailed design of the robot platform, the 7E-MINI arm of the ECA Group was selected as the manipulator. It is an electrical type, with a weight of 51 kg in air (30 kg in water) and a full reach of 1.4 m. To design a platform with a small size and light weight to fit in a water tank, the medium-size manipulator was placed on the center of platform, and the structural analysis of the body frame was conducted by ABAQUS. The robot had an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), a DVL (Doppler Velocity Log), and a depth sensor for measuring the underwater position and attitude. To control the robot motion, eight thrusters were installed, four for vertical and the rest for horizontal motion. The operation system was composed of an on-board control station and operation S/W. The former included devices such as a 300 VDC power supplier, Fiber-Optic (F/O) to Ethernet communication converter, and main control PC. The latter was developed using an ROS (Robot Operation System) based on Linux. The basic performance of the manufactured robot platform was verified through a water tank test, where the robot was manually operated using a joystick, and the robot motion and attitude variation that resulted from the manipulator movement were closely observed.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.355-364
• /
• 2022

When the 60-ton-class patrol boat '72' of the Korea Coast Guard (KCG) was on duty and she accidentally collided with another patrol boat ('207', 200-ton-class) and sank. A month-long search found a small amount of lost items, but neither the crew nor the ship was found. For the first time in 39 years since the accident, the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) searched the boat 72 using the latest integrated geophysical techniques. A number of sonar images presumed to be of a sunken ship was acquired using a combined system of side scan sonar and marine magnetometer, operated at an altitude of approximately 30 m from the seabed. At the same time, a strong magnetic anomaly (100 nT) was detected in one place, indicating the presence of an iron ship. A video survey using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) confirmed the presence of a shielding part of a personal firearm at the stern of the sunken vessel. Based on these comprehensive data, the sunken vessel discovered in this exploration was assumed to be '72'. This result is meaningful in terms of future ocean exploration and underwater archaeology, as the integrated system of various geophysical methods is an efficient means of identifying objects present in the water.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
• /
• v.48 no.6
• /
• pp.88-96
• /
• 2011

Underwater acoustic communication is applicable in various areas, such as ocean data collection, undersea exploration and development, tactical surveillance, etc. Thus, robot control system construction used for underwater-robot like AUV or ROV is essential in these areas. In this paper, we propose the Message Merging MAC($M^2$-MAC) protocol, which is suitable for real time robot control system, considering energy efficiency in important parts of underwater acoustic sensor network constitution. In this proposed MAC protocol, gateway node receives the data from robot nodes according to the time slots that were allotted previously. And messages delivered from base-station are generated to one MAC frame by buffering process. Finally, generated MAC frames are broadcasted to all robot nodes in the cluster. Our suggested MAC protocol can also be hybrid MAC protocol, which is successful blend of contention based and contention-free based protocol through relevant procedure with Maintenance&Sleep (M&S) period, when new nodes join and leave as an orphan. We propose mathematical analysis model concerned about End-to-End delay and energy consumption, which is important factor in constructing real-time robot control system. We also verify the excellence of performance according to comparison of existing MAC protocols with our scheme.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.69-79
• /
• 2017

This paper presents the operations of a multi-beam echo sounder (MBES) installed on the deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Hemire. Hemire explored hydrothermal vents in the Forecast volcano located near the Mariana Trench in March of in 2006. During these explorations, we acquired profiling points on the routes of the vehicle using the MBES. Information on the position, depth, and attitude of the ROV are essential to obtain higher accuracy for the profiling quality. However, the MBES installed on Hemire does not have its own position and depth sensors. Although it has attitude sensors for roll, pitch, and heading, the specifications of these sensors were not clear. Therefore, we had to merge the high-performance sensor data for the motion and position obtained from Hemire into the profiling data of the MBES. Then, we could properly convert the profiling points with respect to the Earth-fixed coordinates. This paper describes the integration of the MBES with Hemire, as well as the coordinate conversion between them. Bathymetric maps near the summit of the Forecast volcano were successfully collected through these processes. A comparison between the bathymetric maps from the MBES and those from the Onnuri Research Vessel, the mother ship of the ROV Hemire for these explorations, is also presented.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.341-348
• /
• 2016

Harbor facilities require long-term durability and safety, and also maintain the performance requirement until the durability life. However, existing harbor facilities are becoming superannuated with durable years and durability is declined by erosion of the sea and damage from sea. In addition, harbor facilities will be in demand for the expansion of harbor and offshore structures with rising economic power by enhancement of domestic industry and increase of import and export. Therefore, in this study, two kinds of nondestructive test (NDT) techniques (schmidt rebound hammer and ultrasonic sensor) are verified for the effective maintenance of underwater concrete structures including harbor facilities. Sea field applicability of Schmidt hammer and ultrasonic sensor was verified by comparing field test result with sea field test result and also deduced the compressive strength estimation equation by depth of the water. On the basis of the sea field test result, compressive strength estimation equation which was deduced by multiple regression analysis indicated highest accuracy compared to other equations, especially it will be more likely to be used in underwater because of the depth of water correction. In the future, if schmidt hammer and ultrasonic sensor which were invented as waterproofing are used with ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), it will be possible to make a diagnosis of high reliability for underwater concrete structures and set up a ubiquitous concept of NDT system.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.222-230
• /
• 2016

HEMIRE is a 6,000-meter-class remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that has been developed for observation and sampling of objects of interest on the deep seabed. We first carried out deep-seabed exploration around the slopes of the Hupo Bank and the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea in June 2015. Over two weeks, a total of 10 dives were made from a support ship, the R/V Onnuri, at eight stations with water depth ranging between 194 and 2,080 m. The dive times ranged from 1 to 6 hours, depending on the operating conditions. We obtained the following results: 1) video images of the deep seafloor; 2) red snow crab density data (a major fishery resource) and inventories of deep-sea fauna, including an unrecorded organism; 3) specific topographies such as canyons slopes; 4) an undisturbed sediment core obtained using a push corer; and 5) observations of the seabed surface covered with discarded anthropogenic waste material.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.539-544
• /
• 2015

There is drift toward moving offshore structures operating sites to deep water that brings subsea systems and types of apparatus to meet more severe environment than onshore. At this moment, climatic condition and seabed state affect trenching efficiency so trenching process is need to make steady progress in a short time. This paper is research on estimation about construction performance of waterjet trenching machine mounted on ROV trencher. Optimal number of nozzles that can maximize trenching efficiency is selected by considering clearance and angle of nozzles through CFD. Then verified effectiveness of waterjet apparatus on the result of trenching depth and velocity by model test analogized performance for construction work of waterjet trenching machine.