Motivation and demonstration of robotic tooling for ground characterisation: the ROBOCONE

Abstract

<p>The offshore environment poses several challenges for the cost-effective and efficient characterisation of the ground and its geotechnical properties. Recent developments in both robotic and sensing technologies offer the offshore industry techniques that could improve the speed and quality of site investigation and support the advanced design of offshore structures. This paper provides an overview of the current techniques of robotic ground characterisation while identifying key areas of further potential contribution. The paper further presents an initial design and some preliminary testing of a new robotic tool – referred to as a ROBOCONE ‘p-y’ module – which upon insertion into the ground, can mimic the loading histories experienced by soil elements around offshore piled foundations. The aim is for this tool to enable the extraction of both simple and advanced soil and soil-structure interaction properties, including their evolution due to cyclic loading during the infrastructure lifetime. Illustrative performance data is provided, and interpretation methods are discussed.</p>