The concept foundation for our seabed crawler is based on the field proven undercarriage of the Hi-Traq®, a subsea vehicle specifically designed to reduce project costs and product risk during the installation and burial of offshore cables.

It consists of a four-track system that maximizes tractive effort. Thanks to the Royal IHC patented independently steerable tracks with self-leveling system, along with anti-slip 4 track drive technology, its manoeuvrability and terrain climbing capabilities are unmatched.

Efficient operation in shallow water

Operating in shallow waters or through the surf zone, can be very challenging due to the aggressive hydrodynamic environment and the difficult seabed topographies. The crawler is especially designed to operate in such harsh conditions. Through its flexibility it can also handle many different varieties of payload.

Multi –tool for subsea intervention and subsea inspection

To perform interventions near underwater cables or pipelines, the subsea crawler can be outfitted with large assortment of intervention tools ranging from Royal IHC design subsea handling systems through to industry standard tooling such as outfitted with a pair of Schilling Titan 4 Manipulators. Tools would be selected to carry out the following activities:

seabed object recovery/placement
remote maintenance
inspection of explosive devices
removal of explosives for safe detonation elsewhere

For inspections, the crawler can be outfitted with:

cable/pipe detection system
any form of subsea surveillance system such as Surface Profilers, Sonar systems, cameras etc.

Flexible solution for protection of underwater infrastructure

With this concept crawler we offer a flexible solution. The crawler is customizable and scalable to suit your specific requirement. For easy shipping, we designed the crawler in such a way that it can be broken down to fit in containers. A dedicated Launch and recovery system can be delivered as well, also containerised for easy shipping and storage.

Modular design for flexible operations

The vehicle has also been designed to allow for swap out of the central chassis to enable various means of powering and controlling the vehicle. Typical options would be as follows:

• Surface Fed Amphibious Vehicle – This configuration allows for Hydraulic and electrical power to be sent down an umbilical to the vehicle. The vehicle can then be supported by a barge or similar to carry out shallow water works or onshore operations

• Surface Fed Deep Water/Long Distance Vehicle – This vehicle comes with an onboard HPU and a 4km long umbilical. Vehicle can then be operated from onshore or off-shore with a support vessel

• Battery Powered Vehicle – The vehicle can be outfitted with a battery system to enable wireless remote operation