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A novel mobile robotic system for unmanned operation and inspection of handwheel offshore equipment

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Abstract

Operating a handwheel adopted in the offshore energy industry normally requires tremendous force with accurate motion. It would be a big challenge for mobile robots, especially those deployed on offshore oil platforms. Our work addresses this challenge by designing tools for a mobile robot to operator handwheels employed in two of the most common types of equipment in offshore oil platforms; a watertight door and a gate valve. The operating methodology and the tool design are examined in experiments using real industry equipment and commercially-available lightweight robotic arm. The study also indicates that embedding sensors and actuators leverages the role of the proposed handwheel operation tool being an integrity helper; the tool can collect data and use deep learning technology to monitor the sealing of a valve. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of using the tool to operate handwheels to expand the robot’s operating range and functionality, as well as to provide a low-cost high-accuracy (96%) approach for robot-enabled inspections.

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Data Availability

The data published in this paper will be available per request. Please contact the corresponding author: Zheng Chen for accessing the data.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality through Subsea Systems Institute Award #582-15-57593. This project was paid for [in part] with federal funding from the Department of the Treasury through the State of Texas under the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012 (RESTORE Act). The content, statements, findings, opinions, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the State of Texas or the Treasury.

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  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Houston, 4726 Calhoun Rd, Room N207, Houston, TX, 77204, USA

    Wenyu Zuo, Jian Chen, Gangbing Song & Zheng Chen

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  1. Wenyu Zuo
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  2. Jian Chen
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  3. Gangbing Song
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  4. Zheng Chen
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Correspondence to Zheng Chen.

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Zuo, W., Chen, J., Song, G. et al. A novel mobile robotic system for unmanned operation and inspection of handwheel offshore equipment. Int J Intell Robot Appl 7, 462–473 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-023-00278-y

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