Focus July 2020

What has Digital Transformation meant for BMT? “It’s been fascinating to see how this process of Digital Transformation has allowed us to diversify and add value to our bottom line. Having automated the laborious and time-consuming aspects of data processing and cleansing, we’ve reduced overheads and exponentially increased the volume of data we can manage. “Crucially, this has enabled our data scientists and analysts to do more interesting and meaningful work. It’s gratifying to see how this technology can be usefully applied more widely. “We can, for example, help monitor maritime pollution and environmental performance by taking water quality telemetered data from on-site sensors and present a complete timeseries that not only shows whether operations are meeting water quality objectives, but can also alert stakeholders of any potential exceedances, with details of location and impact. “So, our business model has changed and we now work collaboratively with our customers, using our technology to help support their own Digital Transformations. Digital teams working on the client side are trying to consolidate their digital footprint and streamline the way they serve their internal and external stakeholders in all markets and sectors. Our role is to listen to their transformation objectives, share our own learning and apply our data science and engineering expertise to solve their problems. “We are also now in the next phase of a disruptive transformation program. This will see us delivering a modularised ‘data toolbox’ approach, both to our data acquisition software platform product, BMT Deep TM , and our sensor and instrumentation project-delivery process. “Our aim is to continuously reduce capital expenditure costs for our customers, providing confidence in our integrated life-of-field solutions through a configuration management and systems engineering approach.” How are we innovating to solve customer problems? “Our data acquisition instrumentation systems and sensors need to be able to operate in a particularly challenging, heavily regulated maritime environment. “They operate on the digital edge, measuring both the external forces present on customer assets, such as wind, waves and ocean current, and the asset’s physical and structural responses to these forces. As a result, we’re constantly innovating in this space to increase safety and reduce costs. “To avoid the need for saturation divers to install sensors, which is a high-risk activity, we’ve developed sensor systems that can be deployed by underwater Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs). “And we’re innovating with Artificial Intelligence, by using algorithms to monitor mooring lines, for example. As the name suggests, these lines are anchored to secure the offshore platform to the seabed. Measuring the tension in a mooring line is challenging and systems tend to have a high failure rate. “So, to address that, we developed a proprietary ‘Position Response Learning System’ that uses deep- water simulation technology to accurately predict mooring line tension through inputs of GPS position and motion. We found that the accuracy of our simulations improved when we added metocean data, such as wind and sea current data. “Using our AI algorithms means our customers can use existing surface-based sensors to understand mooring tension and these are, of course, much more affordable and easier to service than deep water instrumentation systems! “In short, it’s an exciting time to be working at the intersection of data and engineering and we look forward to the challenges ahead.” 13 12