OceanRINGS is a set of smart technologies for subsea operations developed at the Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre (MMRRC), University of Limerick, Ireland. These technologies, developed under the OceanRINGS project, are applicable to the growing international off-shore oil and gas sector, and also for future deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of ocean energy devices. The primary achievement of the OceanRINGS project has been the development of a control and navigation suite for offshore commercial ROVs, far beyond state of the art. This technology helps in reducing shiptime and increases safety, leading to significant saving in ROV operations.
OceanRINGS symbolically represents the dual character of smart technologies:
The Inner and Outer Rings can be rotated/expanded independently of each other, indicating that any module can be transparently interchanged between the Virtual and Real-World Environment.
Specifically, OceanRINGS is a hardware/software and web service platform which enables product demonstration both offline, in a virtual environment (e.g., in a lab or trade show) and online, in real-world (for run-time survey application). This duality of operation opens up new frontiers for the applications of modern control, modelling and simulation tools in marine technology development. It provides a framework for researchers to develop, implement and test advanced control algorithms in a simulated virtual environment under conditions very similar to the real-world environment. Since virtual and real-world components are compatible on a signal level, switching between them is easy and transparent. New control algorithms can be developed in virtual environment and once they work there, they will also work in the field.