By Makai Ocean Engineering
Tyco Telecommunications is upgrading all of its submarine cable laying vessels to use the latest version of the MakaiLay software (version 3.4), taking advantage of new monitoring and control capabilities that have been developed over the past two years by Makai engineers. The MakaiLay software is the most advanced cable lay control system for submarine cable installations in the world.
MakaiLay is an advanced finite-segment 3D cable installation software that provides cable installers with the ability to lay cable in the deep ocean with high accuracy and reliability. MakaiLay calculates and displays, in near real-time, the surface and seafloor tension of the cable, the layback distance of the cable, the cable slack and touchdown coordinates on the seafloor, and many other parameters which allow cable engineers to monitor and control the cable installation process. MakaiLay fully integrates the cable laying operations with the cable control room for cable slack/tension adjustments, the plough control room, and the helmsman DP system to modify the vessel track and speed. The new version of the software can receive real-time ocean current data from Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) instruments. Current measurements can be fed into MakaiLay in real time to calculate how the suspended cable and touchdown position are being affected by the ocean currents. Using the 3D model, engineers can then create a new ship plan on-the-fly to counteract currents in order to maintain positional accuracy of the cable on the seafloor.