Wisconsin-based Rockwell Automation is leveraging IoT, gamification and digital twin technologies to implement a robotic supervision system (RSS) for French energy and petroleum company TotalEnergies.

Rockwell is implementing a robot fleet management system for TotalEnergies, driving autonomous operations for its offshore platforms. The long-running project will see its first test on an offshore asset scheduled for mid-2023.

Autonomous operations have long been an aspiration for the oil and gas sector because of the difficult working conditions associated with offshore operations. This knowledge is extendable to wind offshore projects. Energy companies are investing in the use of robotics in these facilities, looking to enable unmanned operations for long periods; reduce employee exposure to hazardous situations; increase safety; attract young talent interested in new technologies; and further reduce capex and opex.

For a decade now, TotalEnergies has been investing in robots and remote operation in particular with autonomous surveillance and inspection robots certified to the Atex explosive atmospheres standard.

“Because of the remote and often harsh environments in which oil and gas companies operate offshore, there is a strategic objective to minimise employee exposure on these platforms,” said Matt Graves, director at Kalypso, a Rockwell Automation company. “Over the years, this has been achieved by improving the design and automating equipment. But there are still tasks that need to be performed manually, many of which involve observations by operators. For five years, TotalEnergies has been investigating the use of ground robots to undertake some of these manual tasks and the next step was to develop a control system to operate these robots remotely. For that, it turned to Kalypso.”

TotalEnergies has been working with Kalypso and other partners to implement an RSS. This will allow operators in an onshore control room to supervise and coordinate the robots remotely using IoT technology, autonomously performing the various activities that field operators are executing on conventional facilities, from periodic inspection operation and maintenance tasks to emergency response.

Challenged with how to interface the robots with existing industrial systems and how to represent the data in a user-friendly interface, Kalypso employed the Unity game engine from Unity Technologies. This real-time development platform and ecosystem forms the backbone of many of today’s top video games. In recent years, industry has adopted it to create interactive digital content from 3D data and deploy it to various platforms, such as mobile devices, computers, and AR and VR devices. This combines the functionality of a digital twin and the mobility and synchronisation of a gaming platform.

The resulting RSS concentrates the information provided by several different types of robots and consolidates the HMI displays necessary for the remote operators to work efficiently and effectively.

“These tests are important at this stage of the project so that we understand all the operational aspects of using the robots for inspection purposes, anticipating further potential for maintenance and operation,” said Grégoire Audouin, R&D department robotics system architect at TotalEnergies. “The main benefit for the operators is to remotely control these robots and have an immersive view from a central control room. There is huge potential for innovation in our industry.”