The use of tethered vehicles in oil field applications

The use of remotely controlled tethered vehicle systems for oil production related tasks has increased dramatically over the past decade. This increase can be traced to two primary forcing functions. First, the advance in robotic technology has made it possible for unmanned remotely controlled systems to perform a variety of tasks which once only a diver could do. Secondly, with the continued advance of oil recovery from deeper and deeper ocean depths, the cost of saturation diving operations has made it economical to develop sophisticated unmanned vehicle systems which will yield a return over many years of operation. This paper will look at some of the current and future vehicle technology applied for offshore oil production.