HonuWorx and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult are set to demonstrate a concept for a submersible mothership. The project, funded by Innovate UK, will develop Ridley, a submersible platform that can transport large robots and remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to offshore sites and release them directly under the water.The concept will utilise an autonomous mothership as a mobile power and communications hub for ROVs and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Once at site, the platform submerges to deploy subsea robots without the need for crane drops. A further transformative step will be the coupling of automation software for coordinating multiple platforms with communications technologies that can utilise satellite, 4G and 5G as best suits each location at sea. HonuWorx Distributed Control Centres (DCC) will allow for remote supervision from shore.
