Researchers at the University of Houston develop a Autonomous robot to detect potential pipeline leaks and structural defects during underwater inspections. The technology is intended to make the inspection process safer and more cost-effective.
From 1964 to 2015, a total of 514 oil spills related to offshore pipelines were registered. In 20 cases, more than 1,000 barrels of oil were spilled, according to the Office of Ocean Energy Management.
The SmartTouch technology currently under development at the UH consists of ROV Equipped with multiple pressure wave-based smart touch sensors, video cameras and scanning sonars that can swim along an underwater pipeline to inspect flange bolts – bolted connections have, according to the Office for Safety and Environmental Protection (BSEE).
BSEE is funding the project with a $960,493 grant to UH researchers Zheng Chen, Bill D. Cook Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Gangbing Song, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Mechanical Engineering, who work with Oceaneering International and Chevron.
“By automating the inspection process with this cutting-edge robotic technology, we can dramatically reduce the cost and risk of these important underwater inspections, resulting in safer operations of offshore oil and gas pipelines by requiring less intervention from human divers,” Chen said, noting that a prototype ROV has been tested in his lab and in Galveston Bay. The experiments demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed approach to checking for looseness in underwater bolted joints. Preliminary studies were funded by UH's Subsea Systems Institute.
The UH researchers cooperate with OceaniaAnd Chevron will evaluate the commercialization of the technology.
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