ROV & Acoustic Positioning

This topic has 13 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 3 months ago by Thomas.

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September 9, 2010 at 4:11 pm #3831

Thomas
Participant

As some of you know we are a manufacturer of acoustic positioning systems.

We had a meeting on Tuesday and someone brought up the question of “Why are we not selling more PILOT systems”. For a quick background, PILOT is an inexpensive acoustic positioning system. In the most basic setups it costs less than $7,500 and accuracy is, on average, 0.5m.

We thought that due to the price being low and the accuracy being good that we would sell these in high(er) volume. While we do sell these regularly, we’re not selling them in any real volume.

So thought I would put up a poll here and try to gauge why we’re not selling these in higher quantity…

September 9, 2010 at 5:19 pm #29187

rovnumpty
Participant

Desert star

I’d imagine your market would be somewhat limited.

There are very few proffesional ROV outfits that require to purchase their own positioning systems these days. Most will utilise whatever the Vessel they are using already has fitted -such as hipap.

If it’s for a survey or inspection job, quite often the client. or the survey company responsible, will spec precisely the type of system they want used.

That would reduce your market down to mostly the single man operations, and they eitehr do without, or rent one when required.

September 10, 2010 at 9:55 am #29188

Mark McGirr
Participant

DSS. Your price here is different from the website. PM me

September 10, 2010 at 10:38 am #29189

ROVNor
Participant

We have one……. NOT impressed……

cheap, yes….. but…… you get what you pay for….

jonny

http://www.rovogdykk.no

September 14, 2010 at 5:27 pm #29190

Thomas
Participant

It can become a bit complicated to use with GPS and Compass. However, we’ve had a handful of customers successfully use the PILOT system on moving boats without any issues once they got a handle on the GPS/Compass.

October 27, 2010 at 7:42 pm #29191

Thomas
Participant

I’m sure there are more than seven people on here 😆

October 28, 2010 at 8:54 am #29192

Ray Shields
Participant

There are, but we are all using Simrad HPR or HiPaP.

October 28, 2010 at 12:26 pm #29193

James McLauchlan
Participant

I’m sure there are more than seven people on here 😆

But many people only read and rarely add to the site. I guess if we all did that there would be nothing to read 😉

October 28, 2010 at 12:28 pm #29194

luckyjim37
Participant

Having never heard of your product I just looked at your website.

Obvious things that would put me off instantly is there is no clear depth rating of the system and when I tried to look at the link to the user manual the link failed.
When these systems are being purchased nine times out of ten the purchaser does not have time to route out information they need a quick illustration of what the system is and what is limits/capabilities are and if it is compatible with anything else on the market.

Ray hit the nail on the head most ROV companies match up to the vessel HPR system which is normally one of the big commercial systems.

This market is realistically quite well tied up. Unless you produced a product that could give accurate positioning at 3000+M whilst tracking a moving object from a moving platform at a fraction of the cost and interface with a ship dp system it is going to be difficult to mass sell your product to the larger companies in the ROV industry.

November 19, 2010 at 5:29 pm #29195

Raymond
Participant

It’s all been said above. Most ROV support vessels will have very complex USBL sytems built in to the vessel, interfaced to multiple GPS receivers, INS systems and the DP controls. Your system is probably more aimed at micro ROV market where most operators do not require positioning or use other methods for positioning like the Smart Tether system from KCF.

Sorry but not all USBL systems are made equal.

November 22, 2010 at 8:58 pm #29196

Thomas
Participant

Your system is probably more aimed at micro ROV market where most operators do not require positioning or use other methods for positioning like the Smart Tether system from KCF.

I think you’re correct here or at least somewhat correct. I think a lot of it has to deal with the ROV company’s marketing…whether or not they even offer positioning systems. I think a lot of customers do not know all that is available to them and the other half just doesn’t feel like they need one.

Sorry but not all USBL systems are made equal.

PILOT is actually SBL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Baseline_Acoustic_Positioning_System

February 9, 2011 at 10:01 pm #29197

Thomas
Participant

Got a few more responses so wanted to bump this thread 🙂

February 10, 2011 at 8:23 am #29198

Andy Shiers
Participant

RovNor

We have one……. NOT impressed……

cheap, yes….. but…… you get what you pay for….

jonny

What’s the score ?
What expectations did you NOT get ?

May 24, 2011 at 3:02 pm #29199

Thomas
Participant

Revisiting this 🙂
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