Deployment Preparation

Introduction

This guide is aimed to the the team responsible for deploying the Shipborn Lidar on a vessel or a rig. It will specify the conditions about system placement that need to be met for optimal performance. Also, it will specify the information Ocean Visuals needs to prapare the fastenings.

Deployment on a ship

The laser beam should be aimed at the point where the ship movement would not create foam. This depends on the shape and hydrodynamics of the ship. Most common case is shown on the figure on the right. The safest place would be in the bow of the ship, slightly to either side, so the beam would hit water in front of the vessel.

The laser beam should not travel more than thirty meters before hitting the water. More than that and the signal will not travel back to the Measurement device. Beam distance may be calculated by taking the the square root of sum of h squared and l squared.

The distance will change due to waves and rocking of the vessel, so deploying the measurement device so the lenght of the beam aproaches maximum distance limit should be avoided. The tolerance needed depends on the most likely working conditions and should be estimated based on experience.

Deployment on a rig

On a rig the position of the Measurement device should be choosen so it's field of view would not be blocked by ships or any other obsticle. The laser beam lenght limit is the same as with the deployment on a vessel and the change in length due to waves should be taken into account.

Junction Box

Junction Box contains electrical and information techology devices that power the Lidar and save the measurement results from the Lidar. Junction Box needs to be connected to ships 240V power system and to ships local area network. The Junction Box needs to be indoors since it's not wather proof nor climate controlled.

The cable connecting the Junction Box with the Lidar should not be longer than 40 m in order to guarantee sadisfactory data transfer reliability. The location for the junction box should be picked accordingly. The junction box dimentions are L:50cm W:40cm D:20cm.

Additional information

GPS antenna connected to Measurement device is sensitive to high power radio pulses from a radar. If possible select a position for the Measurement device so it would not be in line of sight with a powerful radar. If this is not possible separate antenna may be placed to a more suitable position and connected to Measurement device via cable.