wiredinUSA May 2019

Image: Makai

Help for the subsea installer

Facebook’s submarine cable group, in a joint effort with software developer Makai, has identified two areas where new automated tools can aid human operators with repetitive tasks during subsea cable laying. The first is an automatic rule checker, to assist planners during the route engineering process, and the second is an auto-position tool to help installers during cable installation. Route planning is a time-consuming process where planners need to make route adjustments to satisfy many competing constraints, whether they be drawn from industry or manufacturer standards, or installation limitations. Within the automatic rule checker, planners create rules based on the relevant constraints. The rule checker will run continuously in the background and will alert the planner if an established rule is violated during the route engineering process.

The auto-position tool uses Makai’s cable model to predict the response of the cable to changes in ship maneuvers, and automatically calculate the correct waypoints for the vessel to achieve correct placement of the cable on the seafloor. The underlying algorithm also understands the dynamic behavior of the cable and can calculate the necessary waypoints to negotiate the combined alter-courses with minimal slowing of the vessel. Ian Griffiths, survey systems manager, Global Marine Group, said of the auto- position tool: “Its true value will be fully appreciated when deviations are necessary from the original installation plan because of at-sea events. Changes to the alter-course strategy can be computed much faster with this new tool and, consequently, the risk to the cable installation… will be mitigated to a large degree.”

wiredInUSA - May 2019

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