Oceanid™ – the Future of Exploration Seismic

Oceanid™ is propelled by gravity only, and the glide path autonomously controlled by dynamically activated control surfaces. Gunnar Eriksen from iDROP, writes about their Oceanid-drone and why they joined the cluster in this article.

Written by Gunnar Eriksen, Chairman iDROP AS

iDROP a/s is a technology spin-off company, located at Lysaker, targeting the node-segment of the ocean bottom seismic market, including exploration, production optimisation and life-of-field monitoring.

Autonomous Underwater Drone

For some years already the free-drop installation concept and development - Oceanid™ * has been soft-funded by EU, in collaboration with international clients, technology partners and suppliers.

Based on a ballast-shift solution, Oceanid™ is propelled by gravity only, and the glide path autonomously controlled by dynamically activated control surfaces.

A digital twin is basis for real-time estimating the vehicle position in combination with inertial measurements, a high-resolution pressure sensor and magnetic compass.

The position is further enhanced with a proprietary acoustic measurement solution, currently under further development by SINTEF and a planned test with NTNU.

New Industry Average

The CEO and founder Kyrre Tjøm, has a substantial subsea engineering background and managerial experience within seismic from Schlumberger, Equinor and Seabed GeoSolutions.

iDROP is set forth to provide an autonomous acquisition system, enhancing data quality and still maintain a superior flexibility and scale.

With a successful installation, one node (installed in a swarm of 9) will take less than 2 minutes per sensor on average, compared to current industry average of 150 sensor per 24-hours in deep water operating dual ROV-spread.

Initiated by an oil and gas "supermajors" and a leading seed and early-stage investor, iDROP was established as a private limited company in 2016, and later the board of directors strengthened by two private investors.

Why Cluster

During the spring of 2020 iDROP became a member of the GCE Ocean Technology cluster.

iDROP is set out to capitalize on the significant production efficiency gain by introducing autonomy to the sensor grid, combined with a dramatic drop in production cost and improved accessibility of subsystem parts to the drone swarm.

iDROP seeks and hopes to engage in technical-, financial and operational partnerships, both vertically and horizontally in the value chain or matrix.

Note * in old Greek mythology the Oceanids are the water nymphs who were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Okeanos (Oceanus) and Tethys.