A Novel Mobile Robotic System for Unmanned Operation and Inspection of Handwheel Offshore Equipment

Operating a handwheel adopted in the offshore energy industry normally requires tremendous force with accurate motion. It would be a big challenge for mobile robots, especially those deployed on offshore oil platforms. Our work addresses this challenge by designing tools for a mobile robot to operator handwheels employed in two of the most common types of equipment in offshore oil platforms; a watertight door and a gate valve. The operating methodology and the tool design are examined in experiments using real industry equipment and commercially-available lightweight robotic arm. The study also indicates that embedding sensors and actuators leverages the role of the proposed handwheel operation tool being an integrity helper; the tool can collect data and use deep learning technology to monitor the sealing of a valve. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of using the tool to operate handwheels to expand the robot’s operating range and functionality, as well as to provide a low-cost high-accuracy (96%) approach for robot-enabled inspections.