Offshore Sensor Placement and Retrieval

This job was completed for a customer in the Scientific Research Industry and involved the location and retrieval of subsea sensor pods. These pods were in several hundred feet of water and had an issue where the attached acoustic buoy systems would not release and surface to allow retrieval. Because of this, the customer could not retrieve their sensors from the ocean bottom without assistance. Knowing that Hibbard Inshore had a variety of ROVs, the customer called Hibbard Inshore looking for a suitable ROV and crew to mobilize quickly to assist the retrieval. Hibbard Inshore was able to keep costs manageable by using a small but powerful swimming ROV fitted with sonar, a manipulator arm and a USBL positioning system to locate each sensor pod and attach to it for retrieval. Once the pods were brought to the surface, and the customer downloaded the data, the ROV was used to help precisely replace the sensors on the ocean floor. The ROVs live video and positioning system ensured accurate placement and orientation of the modules as they were redeployed to the sea floor for additional data collection.