Arnoud Jongsma looks back at 40 years of Fugro innovation

I started my career in 1982 with Intersite Surveys (acquired by Fugro in 1997). I can still remember the computer I used for offshore survey work in the North Sea that Christmas. It had just 0.0001 per cent of the working memory and storage capacity of a modern laptop – and only 0.04 per cent of the clock speed. Yet at that time we were ahead of the game.

Precise positioning technology

In the early ‘80, before starting offshore operations we had to erect our own onshore radio navigation towers for positioning. It was a lot of work.

The arrival of the global positioning system (GPS) constellation, initially intended exclusively for the military, made our lives a lot easier. Then in 1990 the US introduced selective availability (SA), which deliberately degraded the accuracy of GPS from 5 m to 100 m, to prevent the technology from being used by the enemy.

Strangely enough, this created a great opportunity for Fugro: we simply measured the errors for satellites in view and distributed corrections over satellite to our users. Within three years, like many other survey companies, our warehouses were full of obsolete radio navigation equipment. We went on to develop corrections of errors caused by ionospheric and atmospheric delays, as well as orbit and clock errors.

In 1997 I became Managing Director of Fugro Intersite, which introduced many innovations, including StarFix® software, the Microdome and the SPM2000.

By 2000 Fugro had become the leading provider of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) services. During the next 10 years we continued to develop a raft of new products, including FineTrack, StarPack, StarPort, StarTrack® and computer vision technologies.

Globalised innovation strategy

It’s interesting to reflect how Fugro got to that point. During the ‘80 and ‘90, the business expanded rapidly, acquiring hundreds of geotechnology, surveying and geoscience companies around the world to amass an extensive innovation portfolio, accompanied by the relevant specialist expertise.

However, the acquired companies were operating largely independently, with small pockets of offshore research and development (R&D) people around the world developing and launching an array of innovative techniques and products. This silo-based organisational structure resulted in inefficiencies, duplication and missed opportunities.

To harness and maximise the company’s R&D potential, in 1998, just after the acquisition of Intersite, Fugro began globalising its innovation activities in the marine survey division. It would however take another two decades before R&D in all Fugro divisions would follow.

Funded at Group level, innovation at Fugro became more controlled, efficient and strategically aligned, with experts now working in dedicated R&D centres, developing products and technologies for use by non-experts offshore.

Innovation trends

Cultural shifts over the last 15 years have impacted the pace of development, which has continued to accelerate, accompanied by a growing pressure to get products to market faster. Protecting intellectual property rights has become a critical business task.

Throughout this time, Fugro has continued to evolve and innovate. We have moved away from the waterfall model of development towards agile methodologies driven by continuous input from user testing. As always, we have welcomed external innovations too, then developed our own solutions on top of them.

Looking to the future

Four trends that I believe will become increasingly important in the years to come are:

• A sharpened focus on renewables, while recognising that fossil fuels will still be needed until the sustainable energy capacity is sufficient;

• Acquiring Geo-data using sustainable, autonomous robots – a safer, ‘greener’, more efficient alternative across land and marine environments;

• Using machine learning and artificial intelligence to process data automatically in cloud environments, giving clients 24/7 online access to real-time data, wherever they are based;

• Applying continuous, cost-effective, touchless monitoring and automated processing to keep a close eye on ageing infrastructure – the early identification of structural problems enables corrective action to be taken quickly, resulting in a lower long-term cost to the asset owner. This approach also enables asset lifetimes to be extended in a programmed and safe way.

It is important to keep investing in the future, and in game changers. We are proud to hold a good track record of investing in revolutionary technologies which have resulted in differentiating business opportunities, such as;

• Satellite positioning;

• Computer vision technology with InclinoCam® and 3Direct®;

• Subsurface screening with SWANS™;

Furthermore, game changers such as the above and the exponential growth of autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) with the development of our 12 m uncrewed surface vessel (USV) Blue Essence® integrated with the Blue Volta®, all started as part of our mid-term innovation portfolio, led jointly with another Chief Scientist, Johannes Singer.

What’s next?

Fugro is leading the private sector in supporting the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project, which aims to map the world's oceans by the year 2030. Understanding ocean currents will improve climate modelling and enhance our understanding of the impact of climate change.

As a company and as inhabitants of this world, we need to come together to find solutions that will enable us to lead our lives in a safe and sustainable way and innovation has a critical role to play.

About the author

Arnoud Jongsma is Chief Scientist at Fugro.