Mobile Robotics for Offshore Automation

This paper describes application areas for mobile service robots in offshore oil and gas producing environments, requirements and restrictions for the use of the robots together with a first prototype and its evaluation in a field test. The field of offshore oil and gas production is analyzed in the first part to identify possible application scenarios for mobile automation. It shows that there is a wide variety of applications for mobile automation. In the second part the offshore environment is analyzed in respect of the use of mobile robots. The results of this analysis are requirements and restrictions for the construction especially due to explosive atmosphere and the hazardous environment. In the last part a first offshore inspection and manipulation robot prototype is presented together with the results of a first offshore application test. The evaluation of this first autonomous service robot that has ever been operated in offshore environments has proven the applicability of mobile robots to offshore platforms.