Robotic Inspection of Mooring Chains in Air and Water (RIMCAW)

在海上油气生产中，固定浮式结构的系泊链发生故障，导致将产品带到海面的柔性管道破裂，导致石油泄漏。清理环境污染的费用高达数亿英镑。因此，在腐蚀、疲劳开裂和出现焊接缺陷导致锚链失效之前，对锚链进行检查以评估其程度是非常重要的。把一条重达数吨的链子拆下来运到岸上检查是非常昂贵的。通过对链进行现场无损检测（NDT），可以节省成本。沉重的链条产生巨大的动力，因此使用潜水员进行检查是非常危险的。该项目旨在开发一种小型、紧凑的移动机器人，它可以在水下和空中爬上锚链，用先进的超声波传感器扫描锚链。机器人无损检测系统将提供一种工具来评估锚链的状况，使资产管理公司能够对锚链的维修和剩余使用寿命做出决策。它将通过加快对系泊链的覆盖来降低检查成本，并消除对潜水员检查的需求，潜水员检查每个浮式结构需要花费4万英镑，并危及他们的生命。

Failure of mooring chains that secure floating structures in off-shore production of oil and gas results in oil leaks due to the rupture of flexible pipes that bring product to the surface. The clean-up costs of environmental pollution run into hundreds of millions of pounds. It is therefore important to inspect the mooring chain links to assess the extent of corrosion, fatigue cracking and developing weld faults before they result in failure of a chain. It is very expensive to remove a chain weighing many tons and bring it to shore to inspect it. Savings can be made by performing non-destructive testing (NDT) of a chain in-situ while it is in operation. The heavy chains generate large dynamic forces so that inspection using divers is extremely hazardous. The project aims to develop a small, compact mobile robot that can climb on mooring chains both underwater and in air to scan chain links with advanced ultrasound sensors. The robotic NDT system will provide a tool to assess the condition of mooring chains to enable asset managers to make decisions on repair and remaining lifetime of a chain. It will reduce inspection costs by speeding up coverage of a mooring chain and remove the need for diver inspection which costs £40,000 per floating structure and puts their lives at risk.