‘HYDRA-UW3‘, an underwater hydraulic robotic arm developed by R&D Center / Robot Business division of KNR Systems Inc., was mounted in URI-T of ROV.
ROV is KOC Inc.’s underwater construction robot for light work-class. With its installation it was put into the work of installing gas pipelines at a depth of about 120m in the southeast seas of Vietnam since July 15, 2020 for about 85 days. As a result, ‘HYDRA-UW3’ was put into practice for the frist time after passing several tests with the completion of its development and acheved a great success in entering overseas market.
<‘HYDRA-UW3’ mounted on ROV (at the time of 500msw depth rating real sea test)>
The construction of Vietnam’s submarine pipeline is a part of ‘Project of the development of SAO VANG and DAI NGUYET GAS Fields’ carried by the national company, PTSC(Petro Vietnam Technical Services Corporation), and underwater hydraulic robotic arm of KNR Systems Inc. ‘HYDRA-UW3‘ was mounted on URI-T (Underwater Robot It’s Trencher), KOC’s ROV (Remotely Operated underwater Vehicle) which participated for technical cooperative purpose, and was put into pipeline excavation and gas pipeline burial work.
The location of the following project was about 350km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam, and the work environment was at a depth of about 120m under the sea. This work was to install 26 inches gas pipe and 18 inches gas pipe which are coated with concrete at a depth of 0.8m each about 22.5km(45km in total) using an underwater unmanned submersible ROV. The ROV that was equipped with the underwater hydraulic robotic arm ‘HYDRA-UW3′ was controlled remotely to excavate pipelines and bury gas pipelines.
<Installation of Vietnam’s submarine pipeline_Provied by The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries>
It took about 50 days based on 24-hour continuous operation, excluding the period of traveling, etc. Through being put into the first operation via Vietnam gas pipeline installation work, ‘HYDRA-UW3’ again proved its stability and got to increase its precision. It is also expected to gradually secure market competitiveness for domestic and overseas construction markets.
‘HYDRA-UW3‘ recently succeeded in a 2,800msw depth rating pressurization test from the entire robot arm at Pusan National University’s The Ship and Offshore Research Institute located in Hadong, Gyeongsangnam-do on August 26, 2021. It is planned to carry out 2,500msw level demonstration test in the real sea by the end of this year with its installation on the ROV.