Thien Nam Buys Sonardyne’s Ranger 2
Vietnamese survey company Thien Nam Positioning JSC has recently invested in its first Ranger 2 USBL acoustic positioning system from Sonardyne International Ltd., purchased through the company’s regional office in Singapore. Ranger 2 will be used to track a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) during the installation of a pipe flowline and a gas export pipeline protection mattress in an oilfield offshore Vietnam.
Ranger 2 is designed as a high performance acoustic position reference system designed for tracking underwater targets and positioning dynamically positioned (DP) vessels. The system uses the Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) method to calculate the position of a subsea target, in this case Thien Nam’s ROV, by measuring the range and bearing from a vessel-mounted transceiver to an acoustic transponder mounted on the target. Multiple subsea targets over a wide area and range of water depths can be simultaneously and precisely positioned.
Subsea structure installation requires accurate and precise positioning. Sonardyne Wideband 2 at the core of 6G technology uses ultra-wide bandwidth signals for more precise ranging, providing the necessary accuracy and precision for these projects. For this operation, transponders will be mounted on the mattress so that Ranger 2 can track it as it descends, ensuring that it is laid within permitted ranges for protecting the pipeline.
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(As published in the September 2014 edition of Marine Technology Reporter - http://www.marinetechnologynews.com/Magazine)