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• Problem 1
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• Problem 1
• Problem 2
• Problem 3
• Problem 4
• Problem 5
• Problem 6
• Problem 7

IFACTORS PTE LTD

Company Background

Ifactors is a subsea cable installer that provides services to Telco operators and oil and gas companies that has needs to  install subsea cable for their IT or DATA network infrastructure.  The cable installed mainly fibre optics and composite.
Ifactors is the only local installer that has experience in laying deep water (>2000m) and also the only Malaysian company that carries the ISO 9001:2008 certification.
Among the projects handles by Ifactors were, Deep Water repair (>2500m) in Indonesia, Deep Water lay from Bali to Jawa Island, Indonesia and also Petronas platform interconnection with shore in Turkmenistan and Peninsula Malaysia.

Background of the problem

Vessel of opportunity is used in laying the cable. For a vessel of opportunity to work, all tools used for the operation should be modular and easy to be transported by commercial logistics. One of the modular tools used is the mechanical cable engine. The unit acts as a hydraulic brake to maintain the correct amount of speed and residual tension for laying cable onto the seabed.
One of the challenges facing the subsea cable laying is the formation of slack when deploying the cable. The slack that formed during the lay will increase the possibility of the cable being laid too long along the  route , hence this will make detection of cable break location be inaccurate and the increase in cable break instances (cable being laid not exactly on the route planned). Wastage of budget also occur when the slack cannot be controlled properly i.e more cable length laid than what is properly planned.
There exist a software to control this issue but it cannot be used for vessel of opportunity basis. The software need to be installed on a dedicated vessel that has all the cable lay equipment permanently installed.

Problem Statement

In order to control the wastages, slack needs to be minimized and vessel movement need to be synchronized with the cable being paid out. Thus, we wish to determine the optimal cable roller enginespeed during the deployment of the cable in achieving this. The cable roller engine speed can be determined with respect to the vessel lay speed, the position of the vessel and also the water depth. At the same time, we would also need your input on the structure stability and stress point of the cable roller.
Since false slack might also be recorded if there is any sudden swell detected, therefore the pitch and roll position of the vessel could be included in the formulation to eliminate the false slack.
               
Expected Output

More accurate speed of the cable engine that can improve the subsea cable deployment process and indirectly minimize the cost of the whole cable laying process.