Inspecting ocean outfalls or pipelines has traditionally been conducted using commercial dive teams and although this method has been employed for several years within most utility companies, this can present some major challenges.
Several factors such as sea state or subsea visibility may lead to down-time or postponement of surveys which can be costly, and safety can certainly be compromised under certain weather conditions. It can also be difficult for divers to gain a complete picture of the outfall due to the manual nature of data collection, and data is typically presented in video format with little reference to defects or issues along the asset.
