Farnborough robots set to make waves in seismic surveying following successful trials at Loch Linnhe

Hampshire could become the epicentre for a cheaper, faster, and greener future in the offshore seismic sector, owing to the work of one Farnborough business.

Blue Ocean Seismic Services is currently developing a fleet of autonomous undersea robots capable of travelling down to the ocean floor and recording accurate seismic data.

Up to now, such tasks have been performed by energy-intensive exploration vessels and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), which rack up significant costs – both financial and environmental.

Not only do the new autonomous vehicles provide a solution to these problems, potentially halving seismic survey expenditure, testing over the last few weeks has also proven that they can do a better job.

The team recently headed off to Scotland for a five-day trial at Loch Linnhe, a tidal sea loch which would offer challenging real-world conditions for the robots to tackle.

Fortunately for them, the trials were a great success.

Despite being regularly pushed off course by the tide, the vehicles were always able to correct course and efficiently navigate to multiple underwater target locations before returning to land.

At each location, they increased their weight to couple to the seabed and recorded quality seismic data – including one instance in which they were faced with an unexpected earth tremor.

With the success at Loch Linnhe adding on to similarly productive trials at Loch Ness in 2022 and in Perth, Australia earlier this year, Blue Ocean Seismic Services is now more confident than ever in the commercial viability of their product.

CTO Ben Hollings said: “This trial is a significant step, representing a massive milestone for the company and the seismic acquisition industry more broadly.

“We have now successfully completed a broad range of testing for our prototype subsea vehicles in a range of environments that validate our technology for operational scale-up and readiness.”

Engineers are currently working to refine the software ahead of plans to enter the market towards the end of next year.

Once prototype becomes reality, the robots are expected to see use at offshore wind farms and oil and gas fields, as well as in carbon capture and storage.

Simon Illingworth, CEO and Managing Director at Blue Ocean Seismic Services, added: “The team have worked incredibly hard over the last year and the results are clear to see.

“We continue to engage with initial potential customers and we look forward to deploying our industry leading technology and operations within the next 18 months.”