Brooke Ocean Technology (BOT), a Halifax Canada-based manufacturer of advanced data collection platforms and shipboard handling systems, has partnered with Christian Situ Geoscience to develop a Free Fall Cone Penetrometer (FFCPT) that is able to free fall through the water column, impact the seabed and record geotechnical and geophysical data. This remarkable device’s portability allows it to be deployed from vessels of opportunity, such as oceanographic survey ships. When integrated with BOT’s “Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP)”, the potential for improved survey efficiency is tremendous because of the ability to rapidly deploy and recover the FFCPT.

Recently the FFCPT was upsized for use on a piston coring system. The procedure is identical to the manner a core sample would be taken, except that instead of collecting sediment samples, the FFCPT makes direct measurements of important engineering parameters, such as shear strength and sediment grain size. The FFCPT can also identify sediment layering.

Brooke Ocean Technology’s ongoing success with the FFCPT project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of funding partners. Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada (PRAC) provided $50,000 for phase I of the project and an additional $10,000 in funding under the new Technology to Usability program (TTU), to help promote the opportunity to commercialize this new tool. As well, GSC-Atlantic and Defense Research and Development Canada provided the project with $97,000 of in-kind ship time. The funding supported the development of a case study and the commercialization of the technology by Brooke Ocean Technology Ltd. In July, the FFCPT was tested and the corer-FFCPT was allowed to free fall and recovered excellent data over the top 15 m of sediment at 1200 m water depth.

Brooke Ocean Technology is extremely pleased with the progress made to date and is confident that the FFCPT is en route to becoming a commercially viable system.