robotics

Industrial robots are becoming an increasingly popular choice in a variety of industries for different applications. Going by responses to a McKinsey and Company survey, up to 88% of businesses worldwide intend to adopt robotic automation into their infrastructure.

To provide condition monitoring and combat fouling, the robot clings and moves along the hull walls. It is controlled via a 4G connection to clean and inspect the walls in line with individual vessel schedules developed through a proprietary algorithm and big data.

The partnership will deliver autonomous robots for safe work in adverse land, sea, and downhole environments.

With their gee-whiz—albeit artificial—intelligence, robots may be the industry’s answer to jobs deemed dangerous, dirty, distant, or dull.

Rapid development of more-accurate simulator engines has given researchers the opportunity to generate sufficient data to train robotic policies for real-world deployment. However, moving from simulation to reality remains one of the greatest challenges of modern robotics.

Gecko Robotics is providing the energy industry with artificial-intelligence-enabled robots to inspect infrastructure and supply massive amounts of data to help predict failures before they occur.

Aker BP showcased the Spot robot recently. Spot will be part of the company's initiative that will explore how robotics systems can be used to make offshore operations safer.

As companies look to reduce the time it takes to inspect a subsea pipeline, as well as the costs involved in the operation, autonomous systems have become a more desirable option. How close are they to becoming the norm?

Subsea advancements in the works include longer tiebacks, an underwater drone that lives on the seafloor, and a robotic manifold capable of actuating dozens of valves. Do these new capabilities, born of necessity, signal a sea change in industrywide technology development?

The criticality of above-water riser hull piping requires frequent inspections. Traditional manual inspection methods present safety and efficiency concerns, but work is being done to see if robotic technologies—such as drones and crawlers—can do the job as good as, or even better than, humans.