Robots Keep Humans from Dangerous Oil and Gas Environments

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Although the oil and gas sector has more historical expertise in robotics, the renewables sector is showing greater desire to adopt this technology per recent surveys. Oil and gas professionals have been skeptical of, and resisted, immersive technologies in the past because they weren’t up to scratch, but for some companies that is already starting to change.

In its Innovation Forecast, Axora found that of the 150 oil and gas leaders surveyed, 99% of respondents believe that technology and innovation is critical to their organization’s survival, yet only 81% of companies have deployed technology for monitoring upstream oil production.  Interestingly, internal corrosion monitoring had the lowest deployment.   However, for those that have implemented it, it’s seen as the application delivering the greatest benefits. 

Yvan Petillot, professor of robotics and autonomous systems at Heriot-Watt University, said oil and gas companies are still looking at things the old way. “The main thing they are driven by is business needs, ‘how much money are we going to save?’ And rightly so.”

He continued, “But as we move through the energy transition we are going to stop being in the ‘business as usual phase’ for oil and gas. They will need to revisit a lot of the things they do and how they operate if they are going to shift to renewable energy. It’s maybe a good time to have a fresh look at technology.”

Some oil and gas companies and service providers are on the forefront of using robotics to improve safety and meet other business goals. 

Petronas has worked with ANYbotics, using its 4-legged ANYmal robot to inspect oil and gas platforms. The companies are working on an explosion-proof version as well. 

TotalEntery is using Taurob’s tracked autonomous inspection robot at its Shetland Gas Plant to perform visual inspections, read dials, level gauges and valve positions, and detect and navigate around obstacles and humans. Equinor will also be introducing Taurob bots on platforms off Norway.

Industry Initiatives

The wider oil and gas industry is showing signs of ramping up robot development and implementation. OLTER—or Offshore Light Touch Energy RAS (Robotic and autonomous systems)—is a program of the Net Zero Technology Centre focused on identifying what the industry needs in terms of robotics, artificial intelligence, and data. 

A partnership between the Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh universities, the National Robotarium, is involved in numerous eye-catching projects which would improve safety in the energy sector. It recently made news that it would outfit a Boston Dynamics Spot robot with telexistence technology that lets humans experience an environment without being there, using devices like microphones and cameras to relay sounds and videos. Researchers intend to test how the robot dog can help people who work in hazardous settings, including oil and gas platforms and refineries.

The Robotarium is also working with Cyberselves and Resolve Robotics on the “Tel-Subsea” project to remove humans from dangerous situations by further enhancing telexistence technologies. Immediate work will focus on bomb disposal and nuclear decommissioning, though wider applications could include offshore applications.

A project being carried out by the ORCA Hub is working on developing a new method of communication. MIRIAM (Multimodal Intelligent inteRactIon for Autonomous systeMs) will let people ask robots questions about what they are doing and why, and get a clear response from the machine. It’s being deployed with one of the Taurob robots at Shetland Gas Plant.

When robots come up in oil and gas, many people raise concerns about jobs. Petillot said there’s not a threat. “We’re going to create a new industry. You’re not going to replace all the specialists, because the data will still need to be analysed by people. Data science is moving forward but it’s not going to replace the human to really look at the data and understand the complexity. You’re also going to have to build and maintain the robots and monitor them.”

In the end, Petillot says, “Robotics is a positive thing. It’s going to empower more inspection and safer use of resources and assets, while increasing the workforce.”

Robots are a win for oil and gas companies, employees, and, yes, the robots. A win-win-win.