Products / Hydra · Underwater / Piers and scour
Hydra
Below the waterline, no dive team.
An autonomous underwater vehicle with the same onboard intelligence as Aegis. It inspects piers, piles and scour on its own, with a person supervising from the bank, and tags every frame to the element it shows.
The job
Most of a pier is underwater.
Scour and substructure damage happen where nobody can see them from the bank. Checking them has meant scheduling a dive team and waiting for safe conditions.
On site
It runs the dive. A person supervises.
Hydra works down each pier and around the footing autonomously, on its tether, while the operator supervises from dry ground.
- LaunchThe operator launches Hydra from the bank.
- InspectIt works down each pier and around the footing on its own, on its tether.
- TagEvery frame is tagged to the pier, pile or footing it shows.
- RecoverHydra comes back up on the tether, and the footage goes into Omnia.
- Operation
- Autonomous, human-supervised
- Intelligence
- Onboard, same as Aegis
- Connection
- Tethered
- Crew
- No dive team
Omnia
What comes back from below the waterline.
PILE / BELOW WATERLINEPile jacket failing, wrap peeling awayCS3
PIER / BEAM AT WATERLINELongitudinal crack along beam at waterlineCS3
ABUTMENTScour, embankment washed out behind abutmentCS4
PILE / FACE, UNDERWATERSection deterioration with heavy marine growthCS3
ABUTMENT / WATERLINESpall at waterlineCS3Where it's used
Structures Hydra is built for.
- River and stream crossings
- Bridge piers and abutments in moving water, where scour is the main worry.
- Waterfront structures
- Piles and pile caps under docks and wharves.
Questions
Asked about Hydra.
Do we still need divers?
Hydra does the looking, so nobody has to dive to get the footage.
How is the footage organized?
Every frame is tagged to the pier, pile or footing it shows, so the report reads element by element.
Who is Hydra for?
Asset owners with bridges over water, and inspection firms who want to sub out the underwater work.
What do we receive?
An Omnia defect report organized by element, plus the data in NBIS XML, SNBI JSON, PDF or IFC 4x3.