Underwater Robot for Shallow Water Pipeline Inspection & Monitoring

KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2023
Speaker: Hassane Trigui, Senior Research Engineer, Aramco

Abstract:
Remotely operated Vehicles (ROVs) are widely used in deep water to perform various types of activities in the Oil and Gas sector and beyond. However, for extreme shallow waters, that is less than 10 meters in depth, the ROV market is severely underserved. In addition, ROV operations in shallow waters are more challenging than deeper waters due to the difficulty in accessing shallow sites with large vessels that can support divers and ROVs in their operations. Robotics Engineers from Aramco have developed a unique underwater robot specifically designed to operate in shallow waters area and perform pipe inspection testing. It is equipped with a 6-DOF electric robotic arm that deploys Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) probes onto bare-metal pipes. The robotic arm carries an ultrasonic testing probe to measure pipe metal loss, Cathodic protection probe to measure pipe protection level, as well as a camera. A cavitation water jet nozzle is attached onboard to help in cleaning bio-fouling and marine growth such that NDT systems can be deployed efficiently. In addition, hybrid maneuverability of swimming and crawling on seabed was particularly beneficial for extreme shallow areas. Finally, an Automatic Service Vehicle (ASV), tethered to the ROV, was designed and developed to autonomously track the ROV as well as relay communication between command control and the ROV.



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Conference:
The KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2023 (RobotoKAUST 2023)

Organizing Committee:
Eric Feron, Shinkyu Park, Raquel Peixoto

Date:
08-10 May 2023

Venue:
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Website:
https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/robotokaust

Organization team and volunteers:
Mohamad T. Shahab, Renzo Caballero, Angelica Coronado Preciado, Kuat Telegenov, Mohammed Aldosari, Katja Gorenflot, Jumana Alashi, Hanouf Al-Hattan, Rehab Ashri, Marta Golem, Adeel Akhtar, Jun Chen, Abdullah Alharthi, Altayeb-Moh'd A. Al-Shedayfat, Amin Almozel, Nawaf Alotaibi, Shatha Alzahrani, Lucas Câmara Dantas Bezerra, Salman Ghori, Arman Ibrayeva, Anton Kim, Bilal Maassarani, Obadah Wali, Joanna M. Ogieglo, Norah Alghamdi

The KAUST Robotics, Intelligent Systems, and Control (RISC) Lab:
https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/risclab