Remotely Operated Vehicles for inspections underwater

Date: 2022-11-19

Maintenance work is part of daily life at hydroelectric plants and is usually a complex process that involves the synergy and work of numerous professionals. Part of these activities - such as inspections, for example - are carried out underwater, which requires, in some cases, the training and necessity of professional divers. In order to contribute to underwater inspections, which are normally complex processes, our company's teams began to use Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), which provide more flexibility, modernity and less risk when carrying out this type of action.

The ROV is an underwater vehicle equipped with video cameras and sensors operated by remote control. The technology has high navigation, remote capture and recording power, which facilitates the teams' day-to-day work when carrying out activities such as analysis and inspection of dams and periodic inspections under the surface of the water, thus guaranteeing a possible preventive action in any anomaly situation identified. Recently, one of these remote inspections was carried out at Canoas I HPP, generating very positive results.

“From a security point of view, remotely operated underwater vehicles are very advantageous. Normally, this type of activity would depend on professional divers, giving this type of activity an added risk”, explains Bruno Longo, Health and Safety analyst. “Aiming to give more flexibility and security to the process, the need arose to innovate through a technology that could, firstly, give more autonomy to the teams and, consequently, reduce the risk of accidents and illnesses. This is already a good practice in the market and is working very well in our operations”, adds the professional.

In addition to safer results during inspections of hydromechanical equipment in dams, the use of ROV ensures greater savings in resources, flexibility and superior results when analyzing data such as depth, pressure and temperature. “The use of this technology gives us greater flexibility, both in terms of the images captured in real time and in terms of stability within the reservoirs. In addition to being modern equipment, with easy and practical assembly, it can access hard-to-reach places, providing us with high quality online images and recordings. This contributes even more to our excellence in everything”, says Vicente Borri, Mechanical Maintenance specialist.

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By China Three Gorges Corporation

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