Comprehensive Highly Integrated Maintenance Engineer's Robotic Assistant - Version 2 (CHIMERA 2)

压力容器是安全关键基础设施，存在于许多行业，如石油和天然气，核能，石化和航空航天。确保这些老化资产的安全变得越来越重要，因为过去发生了许多致命的失败。这是通过对适用性的定期评估来实现的，这些评估受到严格的行业标准的监管。这些标准规定，必须每五年对压力容器进行一次全容积检查。石油和天然气行业中20%的压力容器无法进行外部检查，内部检查需要停产。工业界已经宣传了将人类从这些 ** 沉闷、肮脏、危险且要求 ** 的环境中驱逐出去的必要性。因此，行业正在推动非侵入式机器人检查内部检查具有显著的成本以及与之相关的健康和安全风险：为了进行此类检查，操作员必须停止生产，减压，存储提取的流体，通风等。更重要的是，这些任务目前由人类操作员执行。人类不可能在不破坏遏制的情况下对这些资产进行检查，唯一的方法是通过机器人和人工智能。CHIMERA是一款半自主机器人履带车，用于内压容器的检查、维护和维修。它可以部署到压力容器中，而不会破坏安全壳，通过创新的螺栓在头部工程。目前的版本配备了用于自定位的传感器，用于清洁容器壁的刷子（在空气中），超声波检测系统（能够在水中工作），配备了AI，可以创建腐蚀图和合理的维护和维修计划，以及用于航空发动机目视检查和维修的细长臂。该项目即将结束，履带车的测试和演示即将开始，细长臂演示因COVID-19推迟了六个月。CHIMERA 2是CHIMERA的下一个更好的集成版本，其导航和超声波系统能够在半装满水的容器中运行，机器人手臂也适合检查飞机机翼。该联盟与目标行业之间有着密切的联系，为市场/开发提供了直接途径。成员们建议利用它们，并在新项目结束时向外部利益相关者展示完全集成的版本CHIMERA 2。

Pressure vessels are safety critical infrastructure, present across many industries such as oil and gas, nuclear, petrochemical and aerospace. Assuring the safety of these ageing assets is increasingly important, as there have been many fatal failures in the past. This is affected via regular assessments of fitness for service, which are regulated by exacting industry standards.The standards specify that a full volumetric inspection of pressure vessels must be carried out every five years. 20% of pressure vessels in the oil and gas industry cannot be inspected externally and internal inspections require production shutdown. Industry have publicised the need to remove humans from these **dull, dirty, dangerous and demanding** environments. Therefore industry is pushing for non-intrusive robotic inspectionsInternal inspection has significant cost and health and safety risk associated with it: in order to carry out such inspection, the operator must stop production, depressurise, store extracted fluid, vent , etc. The total cost associated with these activities can easily exceed £1M within a few days. More importantly, these tasks are currently carried out by human operators. It is not possible for humans to carry out inspection on these assets without breaking containment, the only way to do so, is via robotics and artificial intelligence. Providing such solutions is our main motivation.CHIMERA is a semi-autonomous robotic crawler for internal pressure vessel inspection, maintenance and repair. It can be deployed into the pressure vessel without breaking containment via an innovative bolt on headworks. The current version is equipped with sensors for self-localisation, brush for cleaning vessel walls (both in air), ultrasonic inspection system (capable of functioning in water), supplied with AI, which creates corrosion maps and reasoned maintenance and repair plans and a slender arm for visual inspection and repair in aeroengines. The project is coming to an end, with testing and demonstrations of the crawler about to start and the slender arm demonstrations delayed by six months due to COVID-19. It is proposed to develop the next better integrated version of CHIMERA - CHIMERA 2, with both navigation and ultrasonic systems capable of functioning in a vessel half-filled with water and the robotic arm suitable for inspection of aircraft wings too.There are close ties between the consortium and the targeted industries, providing a direct route to market/exploitation. The members propose to exploit them and demonstrate a fully integrated version, CHIMERA 2, to external stakeholders at the end of the new project.