BeeX Autonomous Underwater System

YEAR

2022

INDUSTRY

Aquaculture

REGION

Asia-Pacific

Singapore

ASSET

Artificial Reef

This client agency is an eminent green giant in Singapore, leading the restoration and planning of green spaces to encourage the co-existence of nature urban modern living. Their innovative greening efforts are expansive, with projects on land and on sea.

Among their subsea projects was the creation of artificial reefs to promote marine biodiversity. BeeX was tasked with an inspection of these reef structures and resulting marine growth.

Key Takeaways

At the site, BeeX:

Observed marine diversity and growth on eight artificial reef structures

Noted deviations in four reef structures’ positioning and base scouring through comparisons of as-built drawings to camera visualizations, 2D sonar mosaics, and 3D point cloud visualizations

A Raised Leg of the Reef Structure from the Seabed

The Limitations of Visuals Alone

A common problem in the deployment of divers for inspection is the lack of data perspectives. Due to the lack of developed technological tools, most divers can only provide visual footage and snapshots of inspected areas.

To overcome this limitation, BeeX was chosen by the client agency for its autonomous inspection capabilities in delivering sonar imaging and 3D maps of inspected assets, on top of the baseline expectations of obtaining visual footage.

*Comparison of Reef Deviations from 2D Sonar Mosaic Map (Left) to As-Built Drawings (Right)*

After generating the sonar mosaics, the autonomous inspection drone simultaneously performed a 3D cloud visualisation and visual inspection of select artificial reef structures. Similarly, A.IKANBILIS followed a lawnmower flight path to produce a real-time 3D point cloud visualisation of reef structures viewable on Sambal User Interface.

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*Autonomous inspection drone A.IKANBILIS Lawnmower Flight Path on Artificial Reef Structure*

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The results were insightful. After another round of comparing the 3D visualisations and as-built drawings, the team identified further positional deviations in artificial reef structures.

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*Comparison of Reef Structures from 3D Point Cloud Visualisation to As-Built Drawings*

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Finally, the visual inspection of the artificial reefs helped the team discover weaknesses in the base scourings of the reef, noting that some legs of certain reef structures were no longer embedded into the seabed. This lack of foundational stability was hypothesized to be a leading cause of positional variations in observed artificial reefs.

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*Visual Snapshot Showing a Raised Leg of the Reef Structure from the Seabed*

Beyond Visual: Clear-Cut Inspection Advantages with Autonomous Robotics and 2D and 3D Data

The obtained results are a clear demonstration of autonomous robotics’ inspection prowess. By receiving more than just visual footage, asset owners are more empowered in informed decision-making over operations and maintenance through a better understanding of asset conditions.

Morving forward, BeeX is keen on improving its capabilities in generating visual, 2D, and 3D data for more comprehensive data acquisitions.

Green Giant Discovers Artificial Reef Deviations with BeeX’s Digitalised Inspection Results

Key Takeaways

The Limitations of Visuals Alone

Beyond Visual: Clear-Cut Inspection Advantages with Autonomous Robotics and 2D and 3D Data

Ready to go autonomous?