Coral reef rock cutting

The submersible and fully remotely operated excavator (pictured left) is yet another specialist machine operated by GeoOcean, a French Multinational dredging and marine construction company. After a highly successful project with Prolec in the past providing a tailored 3D machine guidance package for use with its highly specialised scissor excavator ‘MAX’, GeoOcean decided to continue its partnership with Prolec.

GeoOcean’s requirement was to cut a trench into the coral reef located in the waters of an island in French Polynesia. This itself would have been no simple task, but in this instance, the machine was required to also operate 25m below the water level.

To add to this, damage to the coral reef had to be kept to a minimum. In this case, Prolec´s task was to not only provide a robust and rugged system designed to operate 25m underwater, but also to design 3D graphics of the machine itself, as well as the development of a complex 3D model of the rock-cutting tool, which they did successfully. More proof of Prolec’s ability to customise the system to the customer’s exacting requirements.

Another challenge faced by GeoOcean was the accurate positioning of its machine, 25m below the waterline. This was achieved by using an extended GPS mast setup, ensuring antennas were kept above water. As a second step, the positioning signal of a highly accurate Gyro compass was also integrated into the software enabling GeoOcean to operate in even deeper water. The result was another successful integration of Prolec's expertise and unique customer demand. GeoOcean completed the job on time and to specification thanks to Prolec’s help.

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