InclinoCam® and Starfix® deliver UK’s first nearshore artificial nesting structures

Challenge

During the development of Hornsea 3, the world’s single largest offshore wind farm, Ørsted faced the challenge of safeguarding the vulnerable black-legged kittiwake seabird. This required the installation of the UK’s first nearshore, artificial nesting structures.

Offshore installation company, Red7Marine, was tasked with installing the artificial nest structures – three in total – with the capacity to host up to 1,500 pairs of kittiwakes. Each structure is supported by a single monopile. Traditional monopile installation methods require manual checks and regular pauses during hammering to measure verticality – slowing down operations and increasing costs. To ensure the safe and accurate installation of the monopiles, Red7Marine engaged the support of Fugro.

Solution

Positioning for the Typhoon 3000 jack-up barge (JUB) and support vessel was essential to install each monopile accurately. Our industry-leading Starfix® software provided real-time insights into the barge’s position, height, inclination, and heading throughout the piling process. Starfix® combines inputs from a motion reference unit for pitch, roll, and heading, with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals. It helped ensure stability and precision and guide the safe, accurate placement of the structures.

In combination with Starfix®, our cutting-edge InclinoCam® vision technology was used to precisely monitor the monopile installation accuracies. Mobilised from the JUB, InclinoCam® provides continuous verticality measurements via machine-vision cameras and intelligent visual object recognition algorithms. This augmented-reality technology improves safety by reducing human intervention and increases project efficiency with real-time inclination measurements, without disrupting operations. A dedicated screen gives the hammer operator live feedback, enabling quick decisions and speeding up installation compared to traditional pile monitoring systems.

Innovative Highlight

InclinoCam® is a vision-based technology that helps track monopile inclination during installation. Using two cameras mounted at 90 degrees to the structure, it measures the angle of the monopile with high precision. A reflective marker on the installation tool is measured using a robotic total station to accurately measure the height during installation. All data is then sent back to Starfix® for display.

Impact

• Protection of up to 1,500 pairs of vulnerable kittiwake seabirds that can now be accommodated by the three artificial nesting structures

• Cost-effective, efficient monopile solution. InclinoCam® enables uninterrupted operations through continuous monitoring, delivering greater efficiency over traditional methods that require periodic shutdowns for manual measurements

• Improved safety. Fully remote monitoring and touchless system to reduce HSE risk – once deployed InclinoCam® requires no onsite setup or manual adjustments

• Starfix® precise high performance positioning services provided a single point of reference for all critical data (vessel position, pile position, inclination, and height) to ensure consistency, improve operational efficiency, and reduce risk across the project.