Robots for Marine Renewable Energy Plants Maintenance and Surveying

我研究的目的是研究在波涛汹涌的海面上部署的自动驾驶车辆的设计，深入研究对车辆运行至关重要的底层电子和硬件设计。我打算进行研究，这将有助于推动创造水下航行器，这些航行器可以在目前技术尚不具备成功冒险能力的令人生畏的环境中操纵和操作，允许在更广泛的条件下进行维护。随着近海深海石油和天然气开采作业变得越来越复杂，对自动化车辆进行维护和检查的需求正在大幅增长。我的目标将是开发新的或适应当前的技术，可以管理和抵消车辆在不可预测的海底环境中将看到的干扰，从而减少当前远程操作车辆（ROV）和自主水下航行器（AUV）受到的操作限制。现代水下机器人和AUV的能力在很大程度上取决于天气条件;这是我打算通过研究解决的问题，并在开发解决方案以扩大这些车辆能够应对的条件方面取得实质性进展。应对这一挑战的方法可能包括调整当前的集成电路设计以供定制使用，这可以加快信息处理速度，并可能提高系统的预测能力;这将使车辆能够更有效地对抗干扰。基于机械的方法是通过限制器阻碍车辆的移动，从而允许在相对于位置的最小干扰下进行维护/检查。另一种基于控制的方法可能涉及在干扰发生之前感知干扰，通过能够准确预测车辆将如何受到影响;这将更加复杂，因为海洋是一个自然混乱的环境，但使用先进传感器和机器学习的组合，这是一个更可能的解决方案。如果该行业要过渡到完全自动化的检查和维护离岸技术，这意味着从长远来看维护成本的降低，因此也意味着每瓦能源生产成本的降低，这项研究是至关重要的;将人类置于极端危险的位置的需要也将被删除，因此提高了这种操作的安全性。

The purpose of my research is to investigate the design of autonomous vehicles for deployment in rough seas, delving into the underlying electronics and hardware design which is fundamental to the operation of the vehicle. I intend to conduct research which will assist in the drive to create underwater vehicles that can manoeuvre and operate in daunting environments where current technologies do not yet have the capabilities of successfully venturing, allowing maintenance to be carried out in a broader spectrum of conditions. With operations in offshore deep sea oil and gas extraction particularly becoming more complex, the need for automated vehicles for maintenance and inspection is growing substantially. My aim will be to develop new or adapt current technologies that can manage and counteract the disturbances the vehicle will see in the unpredictable subsea environment, therefore reducing the limitations of operations that current Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV's) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV's) are subject to. The capabilities of modern ROV's and AUV's are very much dependent on weather conditions; this is the problem I intend to tackle with my research and make substantial progress in developing solutions to widen the conditions these vehicles are capable of tackling. Approaches to the challenge could involve possibly adapting current integrated circuit designs for custom use, which could speed up the processing of information and possibly advance the predictive ability of the system; this would allow the vehicle to counteract disturbances more effectively. A mechanical based approach would be to obstruct the movement of the vehicle through restraints, allowing maintenance/inspection to be conducted with minimal disturbances in reference to position. Another control-based approach may involve sensing disturbances before they occur, by being able to predict accurately how the vehicle would be affected; this would be more complex as the sea is a naturally chaotic environment but using a combination of advanced sensors and machine learning it then a much more possible solution. This research is critical if the industry is to transition to fully automated inspection and maintenance of offshore technologies, which implies the reduction of cost of maintenance in the long term thus also implying lower cost per watt of energy produced; the need to place humans in extremely dangerous positions would also be removed therefore improving the safety of such operations.