ORCA Stream B - Towards Resident Robots

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Ocean Energy)
Renewable Energy Sources(Wind Energy)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor D Lane
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Heriot-Watt University

Professor Y Petillot
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Heriot-Watt University

Standard

EPSRC

01 April 2021

31 March 2022

12 months

£1,915,361

Mechanical engineering

Scotland; Scotland

ISCF Robotics

Professor D Lane, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Professor Y Petillot, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University

Professor P Cawley, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London
Dr F Cegla, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London
Dr M Erden, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Dr D Flynn, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Dr I Havoutis, Engineering Science, University of Oxford
Dr X Huang, Computer Scienc, University of Liverpool
Dr M Jump, Mech, Materials & Aerospace Engineerin, University of Liverpool
Dr M Kovac, Aeronautics, Imperial College London
Dr S Leutenegger, Computing, Imperial College London
Dr Z Li, Sch of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
Dr T Lim, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Dr K S Lohan, Sch of Mathematical and Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University
Dr A Stokes, Sch of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh
Professor S Vijayakumar, Sch of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
Dr S Wang, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University

Project Contact, Fugro Geoconsulting SAS, France
Project Contact, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
Project Contact, Ross Robotics Limited
Project Contact, Technology Leadership Board
Project Contact, Babcock International Group plc
Project Contact, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd
Project Contact, Total E&P UK PLC
Project Contact, European Metal Recycling (EMR)
Project Contact, Holcim Technology Ltd.
Project Contact, Bahir Dar University
Project Contact, Wood Group
Project Contact, SeeByte Limited
Project Contact, ROVCO LIMITED
Project Contact, Barrnon Ltd
Project Contact, Createc Ltd
Project Contact, Flyability
Project Contact, Lloyd's Register
Project Contact, SLAMcore Limited
Project Contact, EDF Energy
Project Contact, BP International Ltd
Project Contact, Helvetis
Project Contact, Voliro

The international offshore energy industry is undergoing as revolution, adopting aggressive net-zero objectives and shifting rapidly towards large scale offshore wind energy production. This revolution cannot be done using 'business as usual' approaches in a competitive market with low margins. Further, the offshore workforce is ageing as new generations of suitable graduates prefer not to work in hazardous places offshore. Operators therefore seek more cost effective, safe methods and business models for inspection, repair and maintenance of their topside and marine offshore infrastructure. Robotics and artificial intelligence are seen as key enablers in this regard as fewer staff offshore reduces cost, increases safety and workplace appeal. The long-term industry vision is thus for a digitised offshore energy field, operated, inspected and maintained from the shore using robots, digital architectures and cloud based processes to realise this vision. In the last 3 years, we has made significant advances to bring robots closer to widespread adoption in the offshore domain, developing close ties with industrial actors across the sector. The recent pandemic has highlighted a widespread need for remote operations in many other industrial sectors.The ORCA Hub extension is a one year project from 5 UK leading universities with over 20 industry partners (> 2.6M investment) which aims at translating the research done into the first phase of the Hub into industry led use cases. Led by the Edinburgh Centre of Robotics (HWU/UoE), in collaboration with Imperial College, Oxford and Liverpool Universities, this multi-disciplinary consortium brings its unique expertise in: Subsea (HWU), Ground (UoE, Oxf) and Aerial robotics (ICL); as well as human-machine interaction (HWU, UoE), innovative sensors for Non Destructive Evaluation and low-cost sensor networks (ICL, UoE); and asset management and certification (HWU, UoE, LIV). The Hub will provide remote solutions using robotics and AI that are applicable across a wide range of industrial sectors and that can operate and interact safely in autonomous or semi-autonomous modes in complex and cluttered environments. We will develop robotics solutions enabling accurate mapping , navigation around and interaction with assets in the marine, aerial and ground environments that support the deployment of sensors for asset monitoring. This will be demonstrated using 4 industry led use cases developed in close collaboration with our industry partners and feeding directly into their technology roadmaps: Offshore Renewable Energy Subsea Inspection in collaboration with EDF, Wood, Fugro, OREC, Seebyte Ltd and Rovco; Aerial Inspection of Large Infrastructures in Challenging Conditions in collaboration with Barrnon, BP, Flyability, SLAMCore, Voliro and Helvetis; Robust Inspection and Manipulation in Hazardous Environments in collaboration with ARUP, Babcock, Chevron, EMR, Lafarge, Createc, Ross Robotics; Symbiotic Systems for Resilient Autonomous Missions in collaboration with TLB, Total Wood and the Lloyds Register. This will see the Hub breach into new sectors and demonstrate the potential of our technology on a wider scale

20/08/21