KING CRAB™: The Revolutionary ROV
The Challenge of Cleaning and Inspecting Critical Hull Areas Without Divers
Performing underwater inspections and maintenance in the shallow waters around floating assets is difficult because of swell and strong currents near a moving hull.
Using divers is unsafe and costly, and existing inspections and integrity ROVs have high weather downtime because of their basic design, while work class ROVs are expensive, and the wrong design for shallow water work near flowing structures.
The Solution: KING CRAB™
EM&I’s KING CRAB™ system provides a breakthrough in underwater inspection and maintenance.
It is a ‘clean-sheet’ design – hydrodynamically sleek to work in high currents; purpose built power system delivering double the thrust; vertical launch to overcome high swell conditions; free-swimming on crawler modes; magnetic attachment with two manipulators for precise tasks; doppler positioning for poor-visibility conditions and built in capacity for remote operations which reduces POB.
The system can operate in areas traditionally inaccessible to conventional ROVs and divers, including under the hull, around bilge keels and in vertical or inverted positions.
KING CRAB™ is designed for operation from the deck or from small support vessels, minimising logistics and eliminating the need for large ROV spreads.
KING CRAB™ revolutionary design enables launching, operation and recovery in MetOcean conditions that preclude the use of the existing legacy ROV fleet.
The Benefits of KING CRAB™
- Works in high currents: Less downtime, lower cost.
- Crawler mode, stable, manipulators: Advanced NDT and specialised tasks.
- Doppler positioning: Works in poor visibility.
- Lock n Latch positioning: Complex tasks on moving hull with one Pilot, lower cost.
- Remote Operations: Reduced POB, improved safety, lower costs and lower emissions.
Is it Proven?
Yes! Tests in the UK show the expected performance. Further imminent client verified trials are planned in France and Brazil. Watch this space!
Contact us to learn more about this service!
