Application of autonomous systems to monitor oil spills

国家海洋学中心处于海洋自主系统（MAS）发展的前沿。其中包括深潜机器人潜艇、滑翔机和可以携带传感器测量海洋偏远地区大片区域的水面交通工具。随着海上和空中自主系统能力的提高，越来越多的潜在应用变得明显，包括改善海上工业活动监测的可能性。人们特别感兴趣的是如何使用自主系统来提高与石油和天然气行业相关的环境和基础设施的常规监测的质量和效率。还有一个问题是，这些系统如何用于监测和帮助应对石油泄漏。该项目旨在研究自主监测系统（空中和海上）如何适应石油和天然气行业的紧急溢油响应和环境和基础设施的常规监测。一名来自国家海洋学中心（NOC）的研究员将作为实习生在溢油应急有限公司工作，这是一家由行业资助的全球溢油应急合作机构。实习生将对商业和研究中使用的自主系统的范围进行广泛的审查，以确定可能用于应对石油泄漏或常规监测的系统和传感器。然后，该工作将考虑使用多种平台（如自主海上和空中飞行器）设计调查，以确定从部署到数据管理的需求。这将借鉴NOC与MAS的经验教训。这些研究的结论将用于研究如何将自主系统整合到工业环境中的日常操作中，并将其提交给油气行业和研究界的成员进行讨论。

The National Oceanography Centre is at the forefront of the development of marine autonomous systems (MAS). These include deep-diving robotic submarines, gliders and surface vehicles that can take sensors to measure large areas in remote parts of the ocean. As the capability of marine and aerial autonomous systems increases more potential applications are becoming apparent, including the possibility to improve monitoring of industrial activities at sea. There is particular interest in how autonomous systems can be used to improve the quality and efficiency of routine monitoring of the environment and infrastructure relating to the oil and gas industry. There are also questions about how these systems can be used to monitor, and help in the response to oil spills. This project aims to investigate how autonomous surveillance systems (aerial and marine) can fit into emergency oil spill response and routine monitoring of the environment and infrastructure in the oil and gas industry.A researcher from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) will work as an intern at Oil Spill Response Limited, an industry funded cooperative that responds to oil spills globally. The intern will carry out a wide ranging review of the scope of autonomous systems used commercially and in research to identify systems and sensors that may be applied in response to oil spills or routine monitoring. The work will then consider the design of surveys using multiple platforms such as autonomous marine and aerial vehicles to identify the requirements from deployment to data management. This will draw on lessons learned from NOC's experience with MAS. The conclusions from these studies will be used to investigate how autonomous systems could be incorporated into routine operations in an industrial setting which will them be presented to and discussed with members of the oil and gas industry and research community.