Artificial intelligence boosts efficiency of company’s work

An Aberdeenshire-based subsea scanning expert firm is building on its startup success by investing in a project which uses artificial intelligence to make its work “even more efficient”.

Their firm, Viewport3, of Ellon, has been trading for only two years, but is already enjoying spectacular growth – well ahead of projections.

Turnover over the past year hit £340,000, compared with just £10,000 in the first 12 months.

Viewport3’s team now comprises five people and the company, which specialises in 3D subsea scanning, has leased additional workshop space at Ellon Business Centre.

Its system uses existing resources – namely divers, remotely-operated vehicles and cameras – which saves clients from having to splash cash on new hardware. Viewport3’s team reckons it saved clients more than £6.6 million last year.

A spokeswoman said: “The bulk of these savings arose from the reduced requirement for marine services, not just during the capture sessions themselves, but also during the follow-up engineering phase.”

Viewport3 hailed a collaboration with N-Sea Group earlier this year, in which a semisubmersible oil and gas asset was scanned from multiple locations, as its breakthrough project.

Another key deal saw Viewport3 working with BP to provide an innovative method of digital modelling for mooring line chains for a buoy offshore Angola.

Director Richard Drennan said: “We are currently at the vanguard of subsea scanning but know that continuous innovation is key to retaining that position. We are already building on our success with investment in a project which uses bespoke artificial intelligence to make our processes even more efficient.”