ThayerMahan Protects Subsea Cables

Repair offshore wind power cables before they fail.

GROTON, Conn., Feb. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Connecticut-based ThayerMahan, Inc, a world leader in autonomous maritime solutions, demonstrated that its SeaScout system can detect damage to export and transmission cables that carry power from offshore wind turbines to the onshore power making it possible to identify cable damage prior to failure.

ThayerMahan's President and CEO Michael Connor said, "We apply cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art AI to gain new insights into critical seabed areas.  First, our high-speed, Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) delivers ultra-high-resolution imagery.  Then we apply our AI algorithms to identify, classify, and localize what is there.  What we are doing could fundamentally change the commercial offshore construction market."

ThayerMahan was awarded a $710,000 grant in the fall of 2021 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and National Offshore Wind Research & Development Consortium (NOWRDC).  The resulting project entitled "Transmission and Export Cable Fault Detection and Prevention Using Synthetic Aperture Sonar" demonstrated that synthetic aperture sonar may reduce the number of subsea cable failure incidents by using Artificial Intelligence to automatically recognize potentially damaged cables revealed in ultra-high-resolution survey imagery. A formal presentation of results was made at NOWRDC's National Offshore Wind R&D Symposium.

ThayerMahan teamed with OceanIQ, part of the Global Marine Group to analyze a database of cable failures and determine primary cable failure modalities.  As part of the study, ThayerMahan acquired bona fide wind farm cables and simulated each of the failure modalities.  The level of damage varied from no damage to a knotted cable. The simulated cable failures were then placed on the seabed where a high-speed, high-resolution SeaScout system imaged them.  Gail Clark, Managing Director of OceanIQ said "ThayerMahan's demonstrated capability will be a game changer for subsea power cable maintenance. Using this new technology to detect cable failures before they happen in conjunction with the immense knowledge that OceanIQ already hold - about the seabed; the likelihood of faults occurring on the cable route; other existing infrastructure; historic data as well as numerous other factors - will allow us to schedule preventative maintenance, will reduce service interruptions and will ultimately reduce the cost of energy. We look forward to seeing the transition of this new capability from research and development to production."

"Utilizing this technology alongside OceanIQ's immense knowledge on the likelihood of cable faults will be a game changer."

ThayerMahan's AI Systems Group (AISyG) dedicated to Automated Target Recognition, working in partnership with The State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College, provided intellectual expertise, architectural design, and artificial intelligence analysis.  ThayerMahan's Niko Severino, an Artificial Intelligence Solutions Engineer on the project, said "the simulated cable damage was evident in the SAS survey imagery, and the different failure modalities were distinct. I was able to implement a promising machine learning technique to analyze the high-resolution data and assess the damage."  Niko joined ThayerMahan as an intern in 2020, graduated from Connecticut College in 2021, signed on as a full-time ThayerMahan team member, and presented project findings at the National Offshore Wind R&D Symposium in 2022.

About ThayerMahan

ThayerMahan, Inc. is a maritime technology company dedicated to providing its government and commercial clients with turn-key autonomous marine solutions, including deployment, operations, data gathering and analysis services, using state-of-the-art acoustic and electronic sensors integrated on a variety of host platforms tailored to specific mission criteria. The company is headquartered in Groton, CT with additional locations in Lexington, MA, Boston, and Washington, DC. For more information, please visit www.thayermahan.com or contact directly at [email protected].

Media Contact:
Richard J. Hine (COO)
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120B Leonard Drive
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860-785-9994
www.thayermahan.com

SOURCE ThayerMahan, Inc.