Transformer - Robot in Disguise?

Today I was in Peterhead, driving along and suddenly this jumped out. Pity about the blown highlights in the sky but I didn’t have much time before it was going to ingest me!

Back in the real world this was at a client’s site and this is a tensioner unit used for laying pipes onto the seabed. The large continuous pipe reels off a giant spool, passes through the middle of this unit where it is gripped and the tracks move to control the speed it is lowered down to the seabed. It also has to compensate for the heave of the ship on the waves by automatically reeling in and out.