Page 26: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Jul/Aug 2021)

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FEATURE ROBOTICS

Within the last year, a series of significant steps have been made in the world of offshore robotics: a number of legged and tracked robots made their first steps onto and around offshore facilities in Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway and the US. For operators, it’s a big leap to have these things on facilities. For technology developers, it’s a big step towards future potential adoption offshore.

By Elaine Maslin n August last year (2020), Total Netherlands claimed a botics for some time. Its goal is to be able to support normally frst offshore autonomous mission for an ATEX robot. unattended facilities, that would be unattended for a one-year

The Taurob vehicle was used in the condensate recovery long period at a time, says Bartoli. To do that, facilities need to area of the bridge-linked K5 Central Complex offshore be more reliable, and electrifcation plays a big role there. But gas production facility. Its tasks included autonomous there will still be a need for some form of ‘eyes’ on site, and

I missions and external corrosion and painting inspection, as even intervention capability, which is where robots come in. part of evaluating use cases for these systems. TotalEnergies’ frst step was the Argos (Autonomous Ro-

In September last year, Petronas took an ANYBotix ANY- bots for Gas and Oil Sites) challenge from 2014-2017, de- mal C quadruped robot to its Dulang B facility 200 km off- veloping the “frst ATEX autonomous ground robot”. Since shore Malaysia. Locomotion and autonomous navigation were 2018, it has been part of the Offshore Ground Robotics In- tested, as well as general visual inspection, thermal imaging, dustrial Pilot (OGRIP), an OGTC-supported project, which audio recording and battery charging, over a three-foor water has developed Taurob’s Argos-winning robot further, creating injection module due to the robot not being EX certifed yet. the now commercialized Taurob Inspector; a tracked vehicle

Then, in the three months October through December last able to travel around a platform to collect various data (video, year, BP trialed a Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped robot on infrared, sound, remote gas detection, etc.).

the Mad Dog platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to replicate August last year was the frst time a Taurob Inspector was the work personnel would do in walking the platform looking taken offshore, for a one-week trial on the K5 facility in Neth- for anomalies. erlands. Taking robots to work sites offshore is a critical learning

The same month, a version of Spot was taken onto Aker step, says Bartoli. For example, while on K5, it became obvious

BP’s Skarv FPSO to trial its mobility as well as communi- a robot there would need to be able to open doors to get around, cations between it, software services frm Cognite’s Cognite due to wind shields on the facility. Being able to move on differ-

Data Fusion platform and Aker BP, with remote control of the ent foorings has also been a lesson – multiple, in fact. The frst robot from a home offce onshore. Spot has also been trialed trials at an onshore test site with grated foors saw the vehicle’s at Woodside’s onshore facilities. tracks destroyed within three weeks, says Bartoli. These were

Robots are seen to offer a number of opportunities, from improved to be able to work on the grated foors. However, new reducing the exposure of personnel to harsh or dangerous en- sandpaper-like anti-slip fooring installed in the test facility at vironments and or reduce emissions by having lower footprint Lacq has again shown higher level of wearing for tracks. With- assets to being able to operate in places that might otherwise out testing, robot manufacturers don’t know about these issues not be possible. that are specifc to offshore oil and gas assets, says Bartoli. “Robots for us are an opportunity, a tool for a new business It’s just as important to prove reliability, he says. Which is opportunity, for areas we might not be able to go otherwise,” why, in November (2020), two Taurob Inspectors (named says Eric Bartoli, head of remote operations and robotics – Charles and Edward) were handed over to TotalEnergies for a

R&D, TotalEnergies. TotalEnergies has been working on ro- 12-month trial at Shetland Gas Plant, where only Total staff are 26 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM