Underwater robots for subsea infrastructure repair and inspection
Norwegian multinational oil and gas company Statoil and technology enterprise Kongsberg Maritime have signed an agreement with Eelume, a spin-off from the Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU), to accelerate new technology that will significantly reduce costs related to subsea inspection, maintenance and repair operations.
NTNU and Sintef, an independent research organization, have conducted research on ‘snake robotics’ for more than a decade. Eelume is now developing a disruptive solution for underwater inspection and maintenance in the form of a swimming robot.
The idea is to let these robots do inspection and other light intervention jobs on the seabed to reduce the use of large and expensive vessels. The Eelume robot, with its slender and flexible body in a snake-like form, provides access to confined areas that are difficult to access with existing technology. They will be permanently installed on the seabed and will perform planned and on-demand inspections and interventions.
“Eelume is a good example of how new technology and innovation contributes to cost reduction. Instead of using large and expensive vessels for small jobs, we now introduce a flexible robot acting as a self going janitor on the seabed. To support smaller companies in bringing new technology to the market is an important part of our research portfolio», says Statoil’s Chief technology officer Elisabeth BirkelandKvalheim.
The strength of the collaboration lies in the unique contributions from each of the parties. Eelume is founded by top academics from NTNU, Kongsberg Maritime brings in 25 years of experience and technology development within marine robotics and Statoil provides access to real installations for testing and qualification.
“With our unique expertise in the field of snake robotics Eelume is the first company in the world to bring these amazing robots into an industrial setting. Now we take the step from academia and into the commercial world to secure our place in the new and exciting subsea intervention landscape,” said PålLiljebäck, chief technical officer at Eelume. “This is a perfect example of how NTNU AMOS can contribute to bringing research-based innovations into the marketplace through new spin-off companies and co-operation with leading industry players. Eelume is already the fifth spin-off company from researchers at NTNU AMOS and the third since 2013. SFF NTNU AMOS is strongly supported by the NTNU management, the Norwegian Research Council, Statoil, DNV GL and SINTEF Group,” said Asgeir J Sørensen, a director at NTNU’s Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems.
“This partnership offers the chance to bring radical technology to the market, not just in what the Eelume robot can do, but how it does it,” says BjørnJalving, Executive Vice President Subsea Division at Kongsberg Maritime. “It is a new tool that will enable operators to realize large scale cost savings by introducing new ways of conducting routine tasks and helping prevent unscheduled shutdowns by reacting instantly when required.”
Typical jobs, such as visual inspection, cleaning, and adjusting valves and chokes, account for a large part of the total subsea inspection and intervention spend. This new solution can be installed in both existing and new fields where these jobs are included.
Source: Statoil