uROV – The Next Generation IMR Platform Utilizing Supervised Autonomy

Abstract

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have shown promise to disrupt Inspection, Maintenance, and Repair (IMR) activities typically performed by Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) tethered to large, expensive vessels on the surface. There are many concepts and projects within oil and gas that are focused in utilizing the efficiencies of these AUVs in novel deployment framework. A novel autonomous vehicle platform in this domain is being developed called uROV (untethered ROV). The uROV vision has three main elements to bring to the IMR market. The first is to develop efficient deployment solutions such that IMR vessel expenditure is reduced or removed. The second is to bring next generation sensing technology to the market and integrate into the uROV platform. This is aimed at collecting better and more insightful data to use for integrity evaluation. The third main element is to bring digital enablement to the market through connectivity, data process automation, and visualization.