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The mission consists in surveying all submerged parts of the dam: the wall and seals between concrete blocks, the water inlet, sluice gates, bottom outlet…It used to be done by draining the whole reservoir prior to a visual inspection, but when reliable ROV were available, it appeared to be far less expensive and safer for the dam structure to do it using a ROV equipped with a video camera (and now also acoustic camera). The positionning system is then necessary for the ROV navigation, especially in case of poor visibility, and to offer a traceability of all measurements and recordings.

PLSM works in close cooperation with ROV companies and offers its equipments for sale or rent, as well as a full technical assistance including the equipment and personnel to operate it.

Equipment:

Sample of dam survey result in a narrow canyon (french Alpes)

The AQUA-METRE system has already been used for more than 150 dam survey since 2003, in different countries and continents.

Result sample:

Dam Survey by ROV

Goal:

The AQUA-METRE R300-NG associated with the RTKDuo buoy is the perfect solution for the dam survey, since it delivers georeferenced coordinates of the ROV directly (no calibration required). The RTKDuo buoy can operate in narrow canyon, thanks to the multi-constellation GNSS receiver. The MiniPointer R300-NG is used for the ROV positionning, it can be just attached to the ROV, no need for electrical interface since it is powered by internal battery pack and communicates through acoustic network.

The ROV trace and current location, as well as the model of the dam are displayed in 3D using the BricsCad software (dwg compatible, interfaced to AQUA-CAD). AQUA-CAD also manages the video overlay to geo-stamp and time-stamp all recordings.

Vidéo of a dam survey:

(Made by JIFMAR company, using PLSM’s RTKDuo system)