This is a Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) integrated with PhDC4D. It was a project financed by a private company, like the oil ones obliged to invest part of its revenue in R&D, in Brazil. Last year, this obligation resulted in more than R$ 1 billion invested in projects like this. PhDsoft is looking for new partnerships.
There are no limits for what can be done with PhDC4D. The software operates in a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) category, which is like the known businesses managements ERP (Enterprise Resource Plannning), but focused on maintenance. In terms of business intelligence and knowledge management, PhDC4D is a CMMS. Its differential is that both CMMS end ERP can be resumed as an amount of tables.
In other hand, PhDC4D begins with the modeling of a structure in three dimensions, at a specific date. Somebody could think about defining it as a sophisticated CAD, but what about this fourth dimension that allows to simulate the evolution of structure along time? It results in a 4D software that can help to solve any kind of problem.
 
R&D obliged investments in Brazil
In order to expand technology to meet the integrated needs of customers, PhDsoft has traditionally built partnerships with big players of the oil sector, like Petrobras. These partnerships has resulted in a sort of new features such as the ROV integration.
This project used PhDC4D’s technology to manage the hulls and keep track of the maintenance of an offshore platform´s operation integrity by using the exact location of the data obtained by robots in real time.
The best news is that, although it has international headquarters in Houston, PhDsoft’s development teams continue to be coordinated by its unit In Brazil. This means PhDsoft is still a Brazilian company an so can be considered eligible to the demand for national content for the R&D investments oil companies are obliged to make in the country.
 
Internet of things
Last year, the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) has changed the rules for these investments. From now on, 10% of the revenues must be invested in Brazilian companies other than the one that originated the revenue, like PhDsoft.
In the first three months of 2016, almost R$ 150 million were generated for obliged investments in R&D by oil companies operating in Brazil. In 2015, the amount reached more than R$ 1 billion. The deadline for the investments related to 2016 ends at June 30th 2017.
The next generation of projects PhDsoft is preparing intends to enroll everything related to maintenance in one only solution: static and submarine equipments, pipes, risers, structures and secondary structures, cranes, among others. One goal is to make it all ready to the internet of things. The objective is to integrate PhDC4D with sensors like the ones inserted in pipes to measure corrosion taxes or the ultrasonic thickness and strain gauges.