Development of a prototype autonomous inspection robot for offshore riser cables
Development of a prototype autonomous inspection robot for offshore riser cables
The motion and large environmental loads experienced by riser cables connected to floating offshore wind turbines put them at higher risk of failure than grounded sections of cable. We propose an Autonomous Riser Inspection System (ARIS) to facilitate regular inspection of riser cables for early fault detection and gathering engineering data to improve future cable design. Novel robotic methods for automatic attachment, traversal and inspection of cables are described. We develop the sensing and intelligent processing needed to (i) enable autonomous traversal and position estimation, and (ii) gather information about the state and condition of riser cables. Information from an array of cameras and electric actuator current monitoring allows autonomous navigation around obstacles and identifying the end of the inspection. A visual processing algorithm identifies damage to the surface of the cable and sensing methods are developed to measures the cable catenary, where methods to estimate the robot's position along the cable are developed to contextualise and efficiently re-locate observations. Technology concepts are verified through a combination of dry, lab-based experiments using a full-scale prototype and simulations. The results provide proof of concept that requirements for untethered, autonomous riser cable inspection can be met by the proposed system.
Autonomy, Floating offshore wind, Offshore riser cables, Robotic inspection, Sensing and computer vision
Gotts, Christopher
4f11e363-09e0-402a-a1db-55e7066ab068
Hall, Benjamin
944a39b2-1181-42e4-b1dc-b651f93ff24a
Beaumont, Oliver
8f32f52b-44ca-428f-9210-4e01e86d2ee4
Chen, Ziyang
7edd3964-d192-4688-9146-db0811ea93c8
Cleaver, William
05c5048f-9dc3-4e86-b456-7f5294381746
England, James
394e2e0a-b52f-491e-b7ed-7f2d87653f03
White, David
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Thornton, Blair
8293beb5-c083-47e3-b5f0-d9c3cee14be9
1 August 2022
Gotts, Christopher
4f11e363-09e0-402a-a1db-55e7066ab068
Hall, Benjamin
944a39b2-1181-42e4-b1dc-b651f93ff24a
Beaumont, Oliver
8f32f52b-44ca-428f-9210-4e01e86d2ee4
Chen, Ziyang
7edd3964-d192-4688-9146-db0811ea93c8
Cleaver, William
05c5048f-9dc3-4e86-b456-7f5294381746
England, James
394e2e0a-b52f-491e-b7ed-7f2d87653f03
White, David
a986033d-d26d-4419-a3f3-20dc54efce93
Thornton, Blair
8293beb5-c083-47e3-b5f0-d9c3cee14be9
Gotts, Christopher, Hall, Benjamin, Beaumont, Oliver, Chen, Ziyang, Cleaver, William, England, James, White, David and Thornton, Blair
(2022)
Development of a prototype autonomous inspection robot for offshore riser cables.
Ocean Engineering, 257 (8), [111485].
(doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2022.111485).
Abstract
The motion and large environmental loads experienced by riser cables connected to floating offshore wind turbines put them at higher risk of failure than grounded sections of cable. We propose an Autonomous Riser Inspection System (ARIS) to facilitate regular inspection of riser cables for early fault detection and gathering engineering data to improve future cable design. Novel robotic methods for automatic attachment, traversal and inspection of cables are described. We develop the sensing and intelligent processing needed to (i) enable autonomous traversal and position estimation, and (ii) gather information about the state and condition of riser cables. Information from an array of cameras and electric actuator current monitoring allows autonomous navigation around obstacles and identifying the end of the inspection. A visual processing algorithm identifies damage to the surface of the cable and sensing methods are developed to measures the cable catenary, where methods to estimate the robot's position along the cable are developed to contextualise and efficiently re-locate observations. Technology concepts are verified through a combination of dry, lab-based experiments using a full-scale prototype and simulations. The results provide proof of concept that requirements for untethered, autonomous riser cable inspection can be met by the proposed system.
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Gotts_2022_OceanEngineering
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Accepted/In Press date: 2 May 2022
Published date: 1 August 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The authors thank the EDMC workshop of the University of Southampton for manufacturing the components for the prototype ARIS system developed in this paper. We also thank Harvey Skinner for his assistance in preparing the laboratory experiments in this work, JDR Cable Systems for providing valuable insights into riser cable inspection, and IGUS for their support providing components for the prototype ARIS.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
Keywords:
Autonomy, Floating offshore wind, Offshore riser cables, Robotic inspection, Sensing and computer vision
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 457168
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/457168
ISSN: 0029-8018
PURE UUID: b8f52a05-e2a3-47c0-8743-abbf589d24bf
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Date deposited: 25 May 2022 16:55
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:42
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Contributors
Author:
Christopher Gotts
Author:
Benjamin Hall
Author:
Oliver Beaumont
Author:
Ziyang Chen
Author:
William Cleaver
Author:
James England
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