Drafinsub, an Italian underwater works company, has selected Saab Seaeye’s Falcon, an electric robotic vehicle, to carry out a wide range of complex tasks.

Saab Seaeye is a leading underwater e‐robotics (ROV) company.

The long-established company, with its all-inclusive diving operations that include their new nine-man 300msw saturation units, undertakes extensive underwater works offshore, along with dams, nuclear installations and inside tunnels, said a statement.

Work includes pipeline construction, cable laying, offshore platform maintenance and mine clearance, it said.

Drafinsub said that they will use the Falcon for various tasks including: diver assistance in shallow and deep water (300 msw); non-destructive ultrasonic testing with an onboard Cygnus, and cathodic protection with an onboard probe; general visual inspections on pipelines and other structures.

In addition they use robotic vehicles for the placement and recovery of the famous Bisson's Abissi sparkling wine bottles, stored underwater in Portofino, as the seabed is considered an ideal environment in terms of constant temperature, half light and pressure.

The Falcon’s ability to reliably undertake a wide range of tasks in a variety of challenging conditions has made it the most successful robotic vehicle of its class in the world.

Sized just one metre long, and depth rated to 300m and 1000m, its iCON intelligent control architecture and five powerful thrusters give it the control and power to manoeuvre with exactitude whilst loaded with equipment, and still hold steady in strong cross currents and turbulent water when undertaking precise, complex or robust tasks.

Andrea Dellacasa from Drafinsub said: “We chose the Falcon because it's the industry standard for observation robotic vehicles.”

“It is reliable, scalable and suitable for most kind of works, from observation to non-destructive testing and survey,” Dellacasa said.

“Our company has more than 20 years’ experience with ROVs and we felt it was the right time to take a leap in quality, with the completion of our second diving saturation system,” Dellacasa added.

The Falcon’s iCON distributed control provides each device on the vehicle with its own microprocessor, thereby allowing tools and sensors to be easily added or changed, and custom options to be integrated – making it an ideal platform for numerous intricate and demanding applications, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service