Beam has deployed the world’s first AI-driven autonomous underwater automobile for offshore wind farm inspections. The expertise has already proved its mettle by inspecting jacket constructions at Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, Seagreen—a three way partnership between SSE Renewables, TotalEnergies, and PTTEP.
The AI-powered automobile represents a big leap ahead in marine expertise and underwater robotics. Able to conducting complicated underwater inspections with out human intervention, it guarantees to dramatically improve effectivity and slash prices related to underwater surveys and inspections.
Historically, offshore wind web site inspections have been handbook, labour-intensive processes. Beam’s autonomous resolution affords a radical departure from this method, enabling knowledge to be streamed immediately again to shore. This shift permits offshore staff to focus on extra intricate duties whereas decreasing inspection timelines by as much as 50%, leading to substantial operational value financial savings.
Brian Allen, CEO of Beam, stated: “We’re very proud to have succeeded in deploying the world’s first autonomous underwater automobile pushed by AI. Automation can revolutionise how we feature out inspection and upkeep of offshore wind farms, serving to to cut back each prices and timelines.”
Past improved effectivity, Beam’s expertise elevates the standard of inspection knowledge and facilitates the creation of 3D reconstructions of property alongside visible knowledge. This deployment marks an important step in Beam’s roadmap for autonomous expertise, with plans to increase this AI-driven resolution throughout its fleet of DP2 vessels, ROVs, and autonomous underwater autos (AUVs) all through 2025 and 2026.
“Waiting for the longer term, the potential of this expertise is large for the business, and success in these preliminary tasks is important for us to progress and realise this imaginative and prescient. This wouldn’t be potential with out forward-thinking clients like SSE Renewables who’re prepared to go on the journey with us,” defined Allen.
The Seagreen wind farm, operational since October 2023, is the world’s deepest fixed-bottom offshore wind farm. Beam’s challenge at Seagreen has offered essential insights into the potential of autonomous expertise for giant offshore wind superstructures. The information collected by the AI-driven automobile will help ongoing operational reliability on the web site, providing invaluable data on areas reminiscent of marine development and potential erosion on the foundations.
Matthew Henderson, Technical Asset Supervisor – Substructure and Asset Lifecycle at SSE Renewables, commented: “At SSE, we now have a mantra that ‘if it’s not protected, we don’t do it.’ Beam’s expertise demonstrates that autonomous inspections can cut back the personnel we have to ship offshore for deliberate inspections, whereas dashing up deliberate works and accumulating wealthy data-sets to tell asset integrity planning.
“As we transfer additional offshore, and into deeper waters, the flexibility to gather high-quality inspection knowledge in a low-risk method is crucial to us delivering our Web Zero Acceleration Programme.”
As Beam prepares to roll out its AI-driven inspection expertise throughout its fleet in 2025 and 2026, this deployment aligns with the corporate’s mission to revolutionise offshore wind operations by making them extra environment friendly and cost-effective—additional supporting the worldwide power transition.
The success of this AI-powered underwater automobile at Seagreen wind farm not solely demonstrates the potential of autonomous expertise in offshore wind inspections but additionally units a brand new customary for security, effectivity, and knowledge high quality within the business. Such improvements will play an important position in guaranteeing the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of offshore wind power.
See additionally: Hugging Face is launching an open robotics challenge
Need to be taught extra about AI and large knowledge from business leaders? Take a look at AI & Massive Knowledge Expo going down in Amsterdam, California, and London. The excellent occasion is co-located with different main occasions together with Clever Automation Convention, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Safety & Cloud Expo.
Discover different upcoming enterprise expertise occasions and webinars powered by TechForge right here.
