Across the globe, Fugro has six remote operations centres for remote positioning services, rig moves and survey tasks. From these centres, expert marine survey staff assist in manoeuvring, mooring and positioning as if they were on board the vessel. In 2018, our new NeXt remote operations centre in Perth, Australia took this concept to the next level.

As technology allows, we are gradually directing our fleet towards more lightly manned, remotely operated and, in some cases, autonomous assets. The next generation of unmanned surface vehicles will be used in in combination with a regular survey ‘mother’ vessel, or deployed independently from a wharf and controlled from shore.

SEADEVIL™ is Fugro’s proprietary seabed drilling control system that improves the quality of drilling and sampling activities by controlling seafloor penetration from the seabed. Drilling from the seabed allows for better control, as it is independent of vessel movement, delivering samples and cores of a very high quality. At the same time, the direct connectivity with the vessel results in continuous monitoring and control of the sampling processes.

To enhance the understanding and risk management of its 200,000-kilometre power distribution network, Australia’s Essential Energy has been using Fugro’s Roames technology since 2014. During 2018 the same technology was combined with our proprietary Seastriper® technology to digitalise offshore pipelines for another client in Australia. The result is a comprehensive digital archive providing our clients with near real-time insight, via a web-based interface, into location and design optimisation, change and fault detection, and economic simulation capability. This ultimately lowers maintenance costs and can extend the lifetime of the asset.

At the end of 2018, Fugro launched Gaia Insight; the online platform that creates a real-time window to the subsurface. A network of monitoring sensors feeds data into the platform where they are immediately processed and analysed to present the monitoring results to the client. It integrates site investigation, real-time geotechnical and structural monitoring and third-party data, and provides the analytics required to lower ground risk and accelerate construction project schedules.