The subsea industry is looking for more cost-effective methods of executing ROV-related activities. Today there are vehicles in the market supporting both remote- and autonomous operations, but clients are pushing for more intervention related capabilities to meet their needs. In addition to environmental friendly solutions, they want flexibility, autonomy, and more efficient operating methods. To meet these demands Oceaneering has embarked on a major ROV/AUV development project; “Freedom”.

The Freedom concept comes as a natural progression from the successful development of Oceaneering’s onshore Mission Support Center for remote operations, in combination with the “E-ROV” pilot project performed together with Statoil in 2017 at the Troll field. An aggressive 2-year “Freedom” development schedule is now in progress.

The Freedom vehicle is a completely new designed multi role subsea vehicle, merging the capabilities we today associate with ROV, AUV and drones – all consolidated into one package. The modular design solution makes it possible to tailor the Freedom vehicle for a multitude of missions; Observation, inspection, survey and light intervention, to mention some. The vehicle can operate in an autonomous mode, or be fully real-time controlled with through water communication or a tether.

These features makes the Freedom vehicle exceptionally well suited as the resident ROV the subsea industry is seeking now. Also, supported by advanced docking stations where the vehicle can download missions, charge batteries, swap tooling, upload video and sensor data, makes it a powerful subsea janitor.