Page 36: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2016)

Tech Files

Swimming

Robotic

Snakes for Subsea Inspection

Kongsberg Maritime and Statoil have signed an agreement from academia and into the commercial world to secure our with Eelume, a NTNU spin-off company, to accelerate new place in the new and exciting subsea intervention landscape,” technology that will signi? cantly reduce costs related to sub- says Pål Liljebäck, CTO Eelume sea inspection, maintenance and repair operations. NTNU and “This is a perfect example of how NTNU AMOS can con-

Sintef have conducted research on snake robotics for more tribute to bringing research based innovations into the market than 10 years. Eelume is now developing a disruptive solution place through new spin-off companies and cooperation with for underwater inspection and maintenance in the form of a leading industry players. Eelume is already the 5th spin-off swimming robot. The idea is to let these robots do inspection company from researchers at NTNU AMOS and the third since and light intervention jobs on the seabed, reducing the use of 2013. SFF NTNU AMOS is strongly supported by the NTNU larger, more expensive vessels. With its snake-like form, the management, the Norwegian Research Council, Statoil, DNV slender and ? exible body of the Eelume robot provides ac- GL and SINTEF Group,” says Asgeir J. Sørensen, Director, cess to con? ned areas that are dif? cult to access with existing NTNU AMOS, Center for Autonomous Marine Operations technology. and Systems.

Eelume robots will be permanently installed on the seabed and will perform planned and on-demand inspections and Watch he innovative new Eelume snake robot in action: interventions. The solution can be installed on both existing and new ? elds where typical jobs include; visual inspection, No thrusters: cleaning, and adjusting valves and chokes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIpIAbWo_2A “With our unique expertise in the ? eld of snake robotics

Eelume is the ? rst company in the world to bring these amaz- Thrusters: ing robots into an industrial setting. Now we take the step https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-6FbxjNsQU

May 2016 36

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MTR #4 (34-48).indd 36 4/27/2016 12:22:46 PM