Remote presence: Long endurance robotic systems for routine inspection of offshore subsea oil & gas installations and marine renewable energy devices

The OceanRINGS is a suite of smart technologies for subsea operations developed over the last ten years at the Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre (MMRRC), University of Limerick, Ireland. Applied to mini ROVs, OceanRINGS technologies enable remote presence: long endurance robotic systems for routine inspection of offshore subsea oil & gas installations and marine renewable energy devices controlled from a remote control centre (Virtual Control Cabin) through the Internet in real time. Remote presence with mini ROVs enable more regular (even continuous) inspections of subsea structures, including observatories, marine renewable energy (MRE) devices and offshore oil & gas installations (wellheads, pipelines etc.) and facilitates early stage detection of abnormalities and defects. The majority of the cost-savings for offshore oil & gas is the prevention of failure in one of the production arteries (downhole tubing, pipelines and production vessels). Money lost through lost production far outweighs the costs associated with maintenance. The OceanRINGS smart technologies could lead to significant savings in time, maintenance and operational costs (20% or more), if they become available for wide scale commercial and industrial use. This paper describes the main idea and motivation behind the Remote Presence concept.