Fugro has selected underwater positioning technology from Sonardyne for its upcoming offshore wind farm projects in North America.

Fugro ordered three Sonardyne Mini-Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) underwater positioning systems, to support shallow water site characterization surveys, and a standard Ranger 2 for positioning geotechnical boreholes that will influence turbine foundation design and installation.

In addition, Fugro also ordered Wideband Sub-Mini 6+ (WSM 6+) and Nano transponders to fit to the underwater equipment it will be tracking with is new USBLs, including side-scan sonars and transverse gradiometer systems. 

Mini-Ranger 2 is ideal for nearshore operations using small vessels, moored barges and unmanned surface vessels and needing survey-grade positioning performance. For this application, the Mini-Ranger 2 HPT 3000 transceivers will be mounted over-the-side of Fugro’s vessels to provide very shallow, high-elevation tracking, without losing positioning accuracy. 

Ranger 2 is Sonardyne’s highest performing USBL system, capable of simultaneous long range target tracking, dynamic positioning (DP) and subsea communications. It is being supplied to Fugro with an HPT 7000 Gyro USBL, which combines the vessel heading, pitch and roll data that’s critical to USBL system precision, with an acoustic transceiver – in a single housing.

Using Gyro USBL means that owners can move their Ranger 2 between vessels of opportunity and avoid the need to undertake post-installation performance tests before subsea operations can begine.

“Ranger 2 is a great fit for Fugro’s busy work programme off the US East coast this summer. Investing in both Mini and standard Ranger gives them the flexibility to mobilise different size vessels for different tasks and have them working close to each other without causing interference. And because all versions of Ranger 2 use the same software, their crews will be able to easily switch between using the two systems.”

Char Franey, sales manager for Sonardyne in Houston.