Management of a Single-User Multi-Robot Teleoperated System for Maintenance in Offshore Plants

Abstract

This chapter proposes a new approach to management method of a single-user multi-robot teleoperated system for maintenance in offshore plants. The management method is designed to perform a 1:N mode (here, “1” refers to the number of operators and “N” denotes the number of slave robots), in which a single operator teleoperates a number of slave robots directly to conduct a maintenance task, or in an autonomous cooperation mode between slave robots in order to overcome the limitations of the aforementioned 1:1 teleoperation mode. The aforementioned management method is responsible for the role sharing and integration of slave robots to divide the operation mode of the slave robots into various types according to the operator’s intervention level and the characteristics of the target maintenance task beforehand and to perform the target maintenance task using the robot operation mode selected by the operator.