Robots are Getting Very Good at Understanding the Environment Around Them

The July/August issue of Offshore Engineer includes an update on patrolling robots. They are increasingly being used for inspection, maintenance and repair, and they are increasingly being operated, human-in-the-loop, in a cyber world that is a detailed digital twin of their offshore environment.

Energy Robotics, for example, has built a software platform for operating all available oil and gas ATEX certified robots, including those of ExRobotics, Taurob, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It is used for planning, executing and monitoring fully autonomous operator rounds and inspection tasks with robots and drones. All data collected by the robots is integrated into one digital twin. Operators don’t have to worry about data silos being created by different robots – they all have one world view.

A recent study published by UK researchers in Energy and AI looks at current practices and future opportunities for the cyber-physical-human systems that are being developed across diverse industries, including offshore energy. Examples of potential interactions that are enabled by these systems include a ground robot might autonomously request visual data from an aerial drone, or an aerial drone could draw battery power from a ground-based robot. One robot could