Robotic Inspection in Oil and Gas

Doing non-destructive testing while an asset is still online saves time, money, and reduces worker risk. Oil and gas companies are using drones and robots to complete these inspections without putting humans at risk—at unsafe heights or in dangerous confined spaces. 

Gecko Robotics is one service provider helping companies complete these robotic inspections. In an interview with Rigzone, Troy Demmer, chief operating officer of Gecko, talks about the benefits of using robots and the role technology plays in safety and efficiency. 

In the interview, Demmer said, “Robots come into play because they allow for the collection of datasets that were previously painstaking to achieve due to either the dangerous nature of the environment or the sheer scale of the equipment. Data that was previously collected manually was not consistent over time in terms of accuracy and location. The strength of robots is to do something over and over again with precision.”

From Rigzone

Demmer and his team want to make it easier to spin up robotic inspection programs at oil and gas companies—robotics as a service, he calls it. “Installation and implementation of robotics technology are often seen as a complex process that requires a hefty investment in time and effort for a plant to stand up, but realistically robotic inspections can easily be added to a plant’s day-to-day operations by partnering with the right team with the right equipment.”

Companies like Dow Chemical, Chevron, Shell, and others are, with the help of robots, aiming to end all confined space entry (CSE) inspections by humans. 

Demmer addressed the concern about robots taking jobs from humans. He said, “Although robotics will replace some parts of the inspection process, the idea here is to take humans out of hazardous situations, making outcomes safer and more reliable.”

The big benefit oil and gas companies are seeing from robotics is the data, which is cleaner and more reliable when collected by robots. Demmer said, “The use of crawlers and robotics means that people do not have to enter assets at all but are enabled to capture the same amount of data and quality.”

Gecko has helped oil and gas companies inspect an above ground storage tank (AST) roof, a butane sphere, high-temperature fractionator overhead lines, a sour water tank, and more. 

In the future, the additional data collected by robots will bring even more value to companies with the capability to integrate with AI, machine learning, digital twins, and other technologies.

The only robot war here is the one to get them up and running.