Aberdeen-based High Performance Robotics (HPR) is expanding into Taiwan after securing its first commercial contract in the country, marking another major step in the subsea technology specialist’s international growth.
The offshore wind contract follows a self-funded trial by HPR earlier this year, when the company travelled to Taiwan to prove its technology could operate effectively in challenging high-current conditions which have historically presented difficulties for ROV-based inspection.
HPR will now deploy its technology and personnel to support IOG on an offshore wind project, which gives the business a foothold in the Taiwanese market.
Rather than waiting for a commercial contract, HPR invested its own resources in testing and demonstrating its technology, confident that it could provide a faster and viable solution to a longstanding inspection challenge.
Testing was carried out at FloWave in Edinburgh before HPR travelled to Taiwan to complete offshore trials in March. Those trials demonstrated HPR’s ability to carry out inspection activity significantly faster than the current delivery rate on the live project, leading to the Aberdeen company being brought in as an additional contractor to help accelerate the programme.
HPR Managing Director Jan Stander said: “This is a significant step in HPR’s international expansion and gives us a foothold in an important offshore wind market.
“We backed ourselves and our technology by investing our own time and money to go to Taiwan and prove what we could deliver. These are challenging conditions. High currents have historically made it difficult to find an ROV solution that can operate effectively, but the trial allowed us to demonstrate what our technology could do in a real offshore environment.
“We proved there was a faster and effective way of tackling the challenge and that has now turned into a commercial contract. That is the golden thread for us."
The contract builds on a period of rapid growth for HPR, which deploys compact remotely operated vehicles and subsea robotic systems from its Aberdeen headquarters.
The company is increasingly taking technology and expertise developed through decades of North Sea oil and gas activity into offshore wind projects around the world.
HPR has already deployed its micro-ROV technology at Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, where its systems have been used to support cable installation work.
Mr Stander added: “There is a huge international opportunity for the subsea expertise which has been built in Aberdeen and the North Sea over the past 50 years. We have world-class skills, technology and experience here which are directly applicable to the challenges facing offshore wind developers around the world.
“Taiwan is a new market and IOG is a new client for HPR, so securing this contract following the work we have put in over recent months is an important milestone for the business. Our ambition is to keep building on opportunities like this and grow HPR as an Aberdeen-headquartered international robotics company.”