Emerging capabilities for autonomous inspection repair and maintenance

Inspection Repair and Maintenance (IRM) of Deepwater Oil and Gas infrastructure is currently limited to the capability provided by today's work class Remotely Operated Vehicles. A significant portion of ROV operations underutilize their work capabilities for routine tasks such as inspection, survey, and light intervention and yet still require large dynamically positioned surface vessels and large, heavy deck spreads including umbilical winches and launch and recovery gear along with the associated costs of crew system maintenance and mobilization/demobilization. AUVs capabilities are emerging that permit deepwater autonomous inspection, repair and light intervention, eliminating the restrictions imposed by an ROV at a significantly lower cost to the operator by reducing support ship requirements, mobilization and demobilization costs, offshore crew size and skills, and greater inspection efficiency. Critical technological advancements include mature hover capable vehicles with sufficient energy to conduct deepwater operations, modular autonomous perception and response architecture, and new technologies such as 3D sonar, 3D lasers, and automated real time change detection. Similar to the revolution that occurred with ROVs in the '80s and '90s, AUVs are rapidly advancing in capability and will play a significant role in deepwater operations. While the specific policy implications of the Deepwater Horizon disaster are not predictable we can expect that deepwater drilling and production will require more frequent inspection and testing of subsea assets. Operating companies will be searching for cost effective and safe means of accomplishing deepwater inspections, and AUVs offer a compelling solution.