What are the challenges of digitalizing subsea engineering?

1 Data quality and integration

One of the main challenges of digitalizing subsea engineering is ensuring the quality and integration of data from various sources, such as sensors, cameras, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and satellites. Data quality is affected by factors such as noise, latency, bandwidth, reliability, and accuracy, which can compromise the performance and safety of subsea systems. Data integration is also challenging, as different data formats, protocols, and standards need to be harmonized and aligned to enable interoperability and scalability. To address these challenges, subsea engineers need to adopt data quality management practices, such as data cleansing, validation, verification, and governance, as well as data integration platforms, such as cloud computing, edge computing, and internet of things (IoT), that can facilitate the collection, storage, processing, and analysis of data from multiple sources.

2 Cybersecurity and compliance

Another challenge of digitalizing subsea engineering is ensuring the cybersecurity and compliance of subsea systems and data. Cybersecurity is essential to protect subsea systems from malicious attacks, such as hacking, sabotage, or espionage, that can cause physical damage, operational disruption, or data theft. Compliance is also important to adhere to the regulatory and ethical standards that govern subsea operations, such as environmental protection, health and safety, and data privacy. To address these challenges, subsea engineers need to adopt cybersecurity and compliance frameworks, such as risk assessment, threat detection, incident response, and audit trails, as well as cybersecurity and compliance tools, such as encryption, authentication, firewalls, and antivirus software, that can safeguard subsea systems and data from unauthorized access or misuse.

3 Human factors and skills

A third challenge of digitalizing subsea engineering is managing the human factors and skills that are involved in subsea operations. Human factors are the psychological, social, and organizational aspects that affect the performance and well-being of subsea engineers and operators, such as workload, stress, fatigue, communication, collaboration, and decision making. Skills are the technical and soft skills that are required to design, install, operate, and maintain subsea systems and data, such as engineering, programming, data science, project management, and problem solving. To address these challenges, subsea engineers need to adopt human factors and skills development strategies, such as training, education, coaching, mentoring, and feedback, as well as human factors and skills enhancement tools, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and digital twins, that can improve the competence, confidence, and collaboration of subsea engineers and operators.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?