A new autonomous landing solution for offshore structures, called the Barge Master gangway, is designed to significantly improves both safety and performance.
Through a combination of radar technology, cameras and sensors, Bosch Rexroth’s system automatically attaches the landing from the ship to the required site without the need for manual input. This means that the operation is consistent and reliable, regardless of weather and ocean conditions.
After the automated landing procedure, the Barge Master gangway is held safely in place through a combination of motion compensation and the ship’s dynamic positioning.
“There are a number of benefits to the autonomous landing system,” says Rene Coppens, Business Development Manager for Barge Master systems at Bosch Rexroth. “First of all, it’s a further improvement of safety. Perhaps most importantly though, our systems increases the available operational hours. Our system can work in difficult conditions and does not depend on availability of operators, so it can really improve the uptime. These three key benefits present a real step forward in autonomous landing solutions.”
The Barge Master gangway autonomous landing solution is now available to order for newbuild vessels and should be available for retrofit later this year.
Landing systems are essential when it comes to transferring people and essential items between a vessel and an oil/gas platform or wind turbine generator. However, manual control is still required when it comes to engaging the landing with the platform. Depending on the experiences of the operator as well as the weather conditions, this can become a challenging task.
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