Enhanced spill detection and SAR comes to UK

A consortium of three companies has joined forces to bring enhanced oil spill detection and search and rescue capability to the UK North Sea.

Using technology developed in Norway, Aptomar, working with Aberdeen's Briggs Environmental Services, has introduced an enhanced TCMS (tactical collaboration management system) to the UK sector on an Atlantic Offshore Rescue-operated emergency response and rescue vessel (ERRV). OE was given an exclusive tour of the system on the vessel in Aberdeen Harbor this week.

The system brings a high-capacity, motion stabilized IR camera together with geo-referencing technology using radar and AIS data with live streaming capability to search and rescue functionality. 

The camera (pictured), part of Aptomar's SECurus technology, can rotate 360 degrees in up to 14m sea state, using DP type technology, enabling it to lock on to objects chosen by the operator via GIS (geographic information system) or visual data geo-linked to the actively-cooled camera using software. The camera technology can also measure the relative thickness of an oilspill. 

SECurus, which includes a Xenon search light, is incorporated into the TCMS, along with information from radars, aerostats, ROVs, satellite, GIS and AIS (automated identification system – used in shipping).

Image: The operator's view of SECurus.

Using algorithms generated using drift and speed information, the camera can be used to perform automated searches for people or oil spills and lock on to targets defined by the user visually or through targets identified or even drawn on to the GIS. 

Trondheim-based Aptomar launched the technology in 2008 and has since deployed more than 100 packages globally, mostly offshore Norway, Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, and on tankers as well as FPSOs and standby vessels. Yet, the UK North Sea has yet to adapt the technology. 

While the system was created for oil spill detection it is increasingly used for others tasks. A key benefit, says Matthew Gordon, managing director, Atlantic Offshore Rescue, is the camera's ability to pick out a face in the water in the day and night at up to 3km distance and then track them, because the digital camera data points can be GIS tagged, as well as being able to spot and track spills, all while sharing the data real-time with other vessels in the area, the platform, and other users as well as a central control room. The central control room can also take over remote control of the camera and other sensors that are part of the system from shore.

"In terms of rescuing people, the infrared camera is able to see people in the water. We are quite excited by this," says Gordon.

Rupert Pearn, international sales manager for Aptomar, says that in Norway, operators have to state, on an hourly basis, there is no oil spilled from their operations, with verifications performed routinely by the regulator. This makes use of oil spill detection technology mandatory.

To help show the benefits of the technology in the UK, which expects operators to report spills, rather than regularly state there is no spill, the three companies worked together to install a SECurus system on Atlantic Offshore's ERRV Ocean Tay. It has been on the vessel for two months and has already been used to perform search and rescue trials. These proved it could spot a person wearing PPE in the water at a distance of 1.6nm (3km), day and night. In a real scenario, the camera would lock on to the person in the water and relay the location data to a daughter craft, which would struggle to spot the target until it was at closer quarters. 

The tracking software enables predictive modeling of where an object in the sea is going to move to and enable the ship captain or operator to set an intercept course.

In colder regions, the technology could be used to track and also predict the path of sea ice or ice bergs. 

Atlantic have also found further uses for the technology, such as tracking hot spots on tow wires and for watching operations on platforms, including an evacuation procedure, as it can spot heat spots easily. In the Gulf of Mexico, operators have used it to monitor exhaust gas.

The technology has been developed based on research by Lars Andre Solberg, one of the founders of Aptomar. He initially focused on camera stabilization technology, based on research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). 

Image: Lars Andre Solberg trials the system on the Ocean Tay in Aberdeen Harbor.