A Service Robot for Subsea Flexible Risers Analysis and Systematic Design

The design and development of a remotely operated underwater service robot for flexible risers carrying oil and gas was presented. It was designed to provide a variety of underwater operations depending on user needs. In this study, it was customized to carry and deploy digital radiographic NDTequipment on flexible risers. Systematic research and extended analysis was carried out during the design process to develop a robotic architecture that features a number of novel subsystems and allows, in principle, operation up to 2,000 m of depth. The system was developed using conventional manufacturing techniques, materials, and technologies (steel welded frame, hydraulic actuation, etc.), while its performance was experimentally validated. The system can be scaled up or down to meet similar requirements in different applications in harsh environments without any loss in performance. In the future, it is planned to optimize the robot in terms of overall mass and volume. In addition, an attempt will be made to extend this concept to other applications that could take advantage of the proposed gripping mechanism and motion principle. © 2006 IEEE.