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UK-based marine autonomy system provider, Robosys Automation, is leading a new project that aims to transform the environmental consenting process for offshore wind farms by cutting the time it takes to get approval.
Robosys Automation’s partners on the project, named Project ORACLES, include the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, ACUA Ocean, MSEIS, and Plymouth Marine Laboratories, with funding secured through the UK Research and Innovation’s Innovate UK Launchpad programme, in line with the UK government’s Levelling Up plan.
“Currently, the data collection process for environmental monitoring at proposed OWF sites is labour-intensive, with separate providers handling various aspects such as bird monitoring and sea conditions. Data is collected manually and analysed after it reaches shore, significantly slowing down the decision-making process” , Robosys Automation said in a press release.
“Aiming to significantly reduce the approval timeline, Project ORACLES will address this by leveraging advanced marine robotics, advanced autonomous systems, and other digital ocean technologies, to streamline, improve, and accelerate this process, and help meet the UK’s target of 60GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.”
Through a 14-month research phase, the Project ORACLES consortium plans to advance the use of clean maritime solutions, including ACUA’s unmanned survey vessel (USV), which will be equipped with a range of environmental sensors (eDNA, ADCP, acoustics) to collect comprehensive, real-time data on marine life, water quality, and environmental changes.
The consortium will develop a dynamic positioning system (DPS) and a BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) winch profiling system for water column data collection, and integrate multiple sensors delivering a new and highly effective output, together with automated ballasting, according to Robosys Automation, which will additionally deliver a new capability to operate multiple USVs being operated from a single Remote Operations Centre (ROC).