Semi-Autonomous Industrial Robotic Inspection: Remote Methane Detection in Oilfield

Abstract

Robots have been increasingly used in industrial applications. They usually operate along with other robots and human supervisors in complex tasks such as industrial assets inspection, monitoring and maintenance. Even though fully autonomous robotics applications are still work-in-progress, supervised semi-autonomic operation of robots in industrial applications are going mainstream. They promote overall cost reduction, efficiency, accuracy and safety of human workers. These systems combine human-in-the-loop, semi-autonomous robots, edge computing and cloud services to achieve the automation of complex industrial tasks. This paper is a first in series where we describe a robotic platform developed within BHGE and GE-GRC, discussing its use in one example of industrial inspection case study for remote methane inspection in oilfield. We outline the requirements for the system, sharing the experience of our design and implementation trade-offs. In particular, the synergy among the semi-autonomous robots, human supervisors, model-based edge controls, and the cloud services is designed to achieve the responsive onsite monitoring and to cope with the limited connectivity, bandwidth and processing constraints in typical industrial setting.