Sustainable Marine used this subsea vehicle to attach their novel anchoring system to the seabed. It consisted of a hydraulic valve pack which operated drills for embedding the anchors into rock, tracks to move along the sea floor and a number of hydraulic rams. This was monitored by pressure and proximity sensors, encoders and cameras. Although superseded by a newer machine, Sustainable Marine wanted to make this old device operational on land, for testing and operator training. Working at their premises in Leith Docks, Edinburgh, I checked the machine’s sensors and wiring over several days and produced a report. I then made a number of repairs to the sensors and track drive system. This included obtaining some very nice subsea cable joints from 3M, which allowed several sensors to be fixed, without completely stripping them out. Both the inspection and the repairs were agreed as fixed price jobs, including supply of the materials. A few months later, I supported Sustainable Marine again on this device, working with their hydraulic engineers to test the operation of the vehicle against their test procedure.
