Abstract
The Wave Glider is a flagship product, the world’s first marine vehicle that harnesses kinetic energy from wave action to produce locomotion in the ocean, while remaining environmentally friendly and fuel-free; Wave Gliders are completely self-sustaining using solar panels to power their payloads. The platform includes navigational and control systems, and communication to an operations center via satellite. Control with full security can be transferred to a local set-up via a master/slave system. This game changing technology provides persistent ocean presence and a reliable data acquisition platform which can support numerous applications in the oil and gas industry. The drilling industry will benefit from magnetic survey applications for better error control. Exploration & production has applications for effective SEEP surveys, turbidity monitoring and METOC (meteorology and oceanography) applications. The subsea world will benefit from a cost effective method for data harvesting (Gateway Communications). This talk is focused around case studies conducted for customers around the world to illustrate system operation (excellence in execution), data acquisition and data analysis revolving around the applications discussed above. Value is enhanced when a number of these sensors are deployed on a swarm of Wave Gliders to conduct pre-site baseline surveys for risk and insurance management.
