Photo Credit ONR
High Capacity Alongside Sea Base Sustainment (HiCASS)
Large Vessel Interface Lift On/Lift Off (LVI LO/LO)
OTECH, a division of Oceaneering Advanced Technologies, has completed at-sea testing of a Large-Scale Crane Demonstrator that can move 20-foot containers between ships in Sea State 4.
HiCASS is an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Science and Technology Future Naval Capability (FNC) contract and is a key component of the Sea Base Concept described in the U.S. Navy’s Sea Power 21 vision. The objective of Sea Power 21 is having an offshore floating port to support the logistics flow for current and future expeditionary warfare conflicts as well as humanitarian missions. With Sea Base ships, the U.S. would no longer need to secure foreign ports for logistics flow. The key component in this capability is the re-supply of these ships while at sea.
OTECH’s effort has concentrated on the science and technologies required for a crane to move large containers between ships while they are underway. The control system was proven through the use of a 1/20th scale version of the crane that included all electrical sensor hardware interfaces, including motion sensors. The Large-Scale Demonstrator reaches 85 feet and lifted 20,000 lb containers in Sea State 4, and 40,000lb in Sea State 3. The crane was demonstrated in May2010 on the SS Flickertail State in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico sailing out of Panama City, Florida, proving that technologies have matured to Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL6) for transition to R&D, sponsored by PMS 385. The crane flawlessly transferred 128 containers between two vessels moored together in varying sea states proving the technologies.
