Japan’s Kaiyo Engineering, which recently acquired Saab Seaeye Leopard ROV system, has added an active heave compensator (AHC) to the ROV’s launch and recovery system.
Kaiyo Engineering, a specialist marine science company, is undertaking seabed research for Tokyo University and is using the Leopard to explore the feasibility of seabed mining.
The AHC system will be used to maintain the exact relative depth of the tether management system from which the Leopard is deployed by compensating for wave movement and effectively creating a motionless state between them. This significantly increases the ease of ROV operations in high sea states, Saab Seaeye explained.
With the knowledge from simulations and tests performed prior to the commissioning, the LARS system was upgraded on board the vessel by Hydramec and Scantrol.
In Japan the system was tested to record winch response and winch speed, by simulating 3 meter vessel displacement down to the Leopard’s 3000 meter rated depth.