Application of robotics in offshore oil and gas industry- A review Part II

Inspection of ship hulls and marine structures using autonomous underwater vehicles has emerged as a unique and challenging application of robotics. The problem poses rich questions in physical design and operation, perception and navigation, and planning, driven by difficulties arising from the acoustic environment, poor water quality and the highly complex structures to be inspected. In this paper, we develop and apply algorithms for the central navigation and planning problems on ship hulls. These divide into two classes, suitable for the open, forward parts of a typical monohull, and for the complex areas around the shafting, propellers and rudders. On the open hull, we have integrated acoustic and visual mapping processes to achieve closed-loop control relative to features such as weld-lines and biofouling. In the complex area, we implemented new large-scale planning routines so as to achieve full imaging coverage of all the structures, at a high resolution. We demonstrate our approaches in recent op...

/pdf/advanced-perception-navigation-and-planning-for-autonomous-2zpm735sky.pdf

Advanced perception, navigation and planning for autonomous in-water ship hull inspection

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) detection is one of the most popular methods of pipeline inspection. It is a nondestructive testing technique which uses magnetic sensitive sensors to detect the magnetic leakage field of defects on both the internal and external surfaces of pipelines. This paper introduces the main principles, measurement and processing of MFL data. As the key point of a quantitative analysis of MFL detection, the identification of the leakage magnetic signal is also discussed. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of different identification methods are analyzed. Then the paper briefly introduces the expert systems used. At the end of this paper, future developments in pipeline MFL detection are predicted.

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/15/12/29845/pdf

Theory and Application of Magnetic Flux Leakage Pipeline Detection

This paper reports a real-time monocular visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm and results for its application in the area of autonomous underwater ship hull inspection. The proposed algorithm overcomes some of the specific challenges associated with underwater visual SLAM, namely, limited field of view imagery and feature-poor regions. It does so by exploiting our SLAM navigation prior within the image registration pipeline and by being selective about which imagery is considered informative in terms of our visual SLAM map. A novel online bag-of-words measure for intra and interimage saliency are introduced and are shown to be useful for image key-frame selection, information-gain-based link hypothesis, and novelty detection. Results from three real-world hull inspection experiments evaluate the overall approach, including one survey comprising a 3.4-h/2.7-km-long trajectory.

/pdf/real-time-visual-slam-for-autonomous-underwater-hull-47msc21576.pdf

Real-Time Visual SLAM for Autonomous Underwater Hull Inspection Using Visual Saliency

Note: Includes index + new features guide (1995) + quick reference Reference Record created on 2004-09-07, modified on 2016-08-08

Signal processing toolbox for use with MATLAB : ユーザーズガイド


 It is known that the mooring system of floating platforms responds non-linearly to environmental loads. Even though the wave-frequency excitation can be assumed as a Gaussian process, the line tension generally is not a Gaussian process due to the second-order slow-drift floater motions and the nonlinearities of the system itself. Distinct short-term time-domain analyses with the same wave spectrum excitation, i.e., distinct realizations of the response process, lead to a set of distinct values for the simulated individual maximum observed line tensions. Therefore, the ideal practice for estimating extreme tension values should be to perform a sufficiently large number of independent simulations along with an extreme statistical analysis considering the sample of the maximum line tension identified in each simulation. However, this process can be very time-consuming and cumbersome for everyday design applications. In this paper, the short-term line tension is assumed to be a non-Gaussian ergodic process. The extreme tension is then estimated based on the peaks sample of just a single simulated tension time-history. A number of known probability distributions are fitted to the peaks of the time series and classic order statistics theory is applied to determine the most probable extreme line tension corresponding to a specified short-time period (3-h) in order to identify the one with best performance. The proposed probability distribution models for the tension peaks are the 3-parameter Weibull distribution, the Weibull distribution fitted to the tail of the data (Weibull-tail) and the Shifted Generalized Lognormal Distribution (SGLD). The estimated extreme values are also prone to uncertainties due to time-domain simulation details. The effects of the major parameters in the dynamic analysis, such as simulation length and discretization level of the wave spectrum, are therefore investigated using several simulated mooring line tension time-histories. Furthermore, the effect of correlation between consecutive line tension peaks in the extreme values estimation is investigated through a Nataf transformation-based model for joint probability distribution for the peaks and the one step Markov chain condition. It is shown that this latter consideration leads to extreme value estimates that are invariably smaller than those obtained by standard order statistics. These estimates are also shown to be closer to the extreme estimates directly obtained from a sample of largest values taken from several distinct numerical simulations. Numerical examples cover two study cases for mooring lines belonging to FPSO (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) units to be installed in Brazilian waters.

Extreme Value Estimation of Mooring Lines Top Tension

Response based approaches are not common in riser design. Due to the high computational costs associated to these methodologies, it is usual to replace the calculation of extreme long term responses by the calculation of responses to a few number of artificial sea states, supposed extreme. However, this hypothesis may not always be applicable. The extreme response of a riser is influenced by several factors. For instance, vessel response motions resonance can occur for waves of periods lower than the ones associated to the desired long term period. In this way, this work has two main objectives. The first is to propose a computationally feasible methodology to calculate long term extreme responses; the second is to calibrate loading conditions, based on the long term responses, to be used when designing catenary risers. The parameter selected to represent the response is the centenary (100y) riser top tension. The utilization of the proposed methodology is illustrated by a case study where three possible positions for a turret in a FPSO hull were compared. The obtained results indicate that this methodology can contribute to substantial changes in the way risers are designed, focusing on the response instead of on the occurrence of extreme sea states.Copyright © 2012 by ASME

Calibration of Design Conditions Based on Long Term Top Tension for Catenary Risers


 This work presents methods for reducing computational costs to estimate fatigue damage in riser structures by simplifying the sea state matrix to be solved in time domain by finite element analyses. Two different methods are proposed: The Equivalent Damage Method (EDM), which is a lump block method with an innovative formulation using vessel linearized response to determine significant sea states; and the Response Surface Method (RSM), which uses results from a few sea states to estimate results for other intermediary scenarios required for the fatigue analysis. Basic assumptions and guidance on how to apply the proposed methods are explained through the text.
 The methods are used to solve an example of a Steel Catenary Riser (SCR) connected to a Semi-Submersible vessel, resulting in a reduction of almost 80% of the required computing time. Results show accurate values for damage estimates at the top of the riser, and limitations at the touch down zone. Advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed in detail, demonstrating that they can be used with discretion at early design stages to estimate fatigue damage of risers, umbilicals and mooring lines in general.

Simplifying Methods for Fatigue Analysis of Risers

This work investigates numerically two different methods of moments applied to Hermite derived probability distribution model and variations of Weibull distribution fitted to the short-term time series peaks sample of stochastic response parameters of a simplified jack-up platform model which represents a source of high non-Gaussian responses. The main focus of the work is to compare the results of short-term extreme response statistics obtained by the so-called linear method of moments (L-moments) and the conventional method of moments using either Hermite or Weibull models as the distribution model for the peaks. A simplified mass-spring system representing a three-legged jack-up platform is initially employed in order to observe directly impacts of the linear method of moments (L-moments) in extreme analysis results. Afterward, the stochastic response of the three-legged jack-up platform is analyzed by means of 3D finite element model. Bias and statistical uncertainty in the estimated extreme statistics parameters are computed considering as the “theoretical” estimates those evaluated by fitting a Gumbel to a sample of episodical extreme values obtained from distinct short-term realizations (or simulations). Results show that the variability of the extreme results, as a function of the simulation length, determined by the linear method of moments (L-moments) is smaller than their corresponding ones derived from the conventional method of moments and the biases are more or less the same.

Luis Volnei Sudati Sagrilo

Papers

Extreme Value Estimation of Mooring Lines Top Tension

Calibration of Design Conditions Based on Long Term Top Tension for Catenary Risers

Simplifying Methods for Fatigue Analysis of Risers

Conventional and Linear Statistical Moments Applied in Extreme Value Analysis of Non-Gaussian Response of Jack-Ups

Erratum to: “Reliability-based comparative study for mooring line design criteria” [Appl. Ocean Res. 28 (6) (2006) 398–406]