Shallow Water Inspection & Monitoring Robot (SWIM-R) is designed to quickly and safely inspect oil and gas pipelines in extremely shallow waters. Divers clean and inspect pipeline joints. However, diving operations are slow in shallow waters as diving support ships cannot access shallow depths. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that can perform cleaning and inspection are typically suited for deeper regions and are too large for smaller boats that navigate in shallow areas. To resolve this challenge, two SWIM-R vehicles and a companion Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) were developed as a multi-robot system to minimize the reliance on divers for pipeline inspection. A unique mission architecture is presented that avails three operating modes depending on the depth; direct control from the shore, relayed control via the ASV, and direct control from a small zodiac. The mission architecture includes two ROVs; a Cleaning SWIM-R fitted with a water-jet nozzle to clean marine growth from the surface to be inspected, and an Inspection SWIM-R fitted with a neutrally-buoyant multi-functional robotic arm to inspect the surface and crawling tracks to traverse the seafloor. This multi-robot system was field tested, which proved its efficacy in inspecting oil and gas assets in shallow waters.

浅水检查和监控机器人（SWIM-R）旨在快速、安全地检查极浅水域的石油和天然气管道。潜水员清洁和检查管道接头。然而，由于潜水支援船无法进入浅水深度，浅水区的潜水作业速度很慢。可以执行清洁和检查的遥控潜水器 (ROV) 通常适合较深的区域，但对于在浅水区域航行的小型船只来说太大。为了解决这一挑战，我们开发了两辆 SWIM-R 车辆和一辆配套的自主水面车辆 (ASV) 作为多机器人系统，以最大限度地减少对潜水员进行管道检查的依赖。提出了一种独特的任务架构，根据深度使用三种操作模式；从岸上直接控制、通过 ASV 中继控制以及从小型黄道带直接控制。任务架构包括两个 ROV；清洁 SWIM-R 配备水射流喷嘴，用于清除待检查表面的海洋生物；检查 SWIM-R 配备中性浮力多功能机械臂，用于检查表面和爬行道，用于穿越待检查的表面。海底。该多机器人系统经过现场测试，证明了其在浅海油气资产检查中的有效性。