The Use of Multi Rotor Remotely Operated Aerial Vehicles (ROAVs) as a Method of Close Visually Inspecting (CVI) Live and Difficult to Access Assets on Offshore Platforms
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Type
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Conference
Paper
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Author
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Malcolm
Thomas Connolly
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URL
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Publisher
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Society
of Petroleum Engineers
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Date
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2014
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Abstract
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The
deployment of Remotely Operated Aerial Vehicles (ROAV) has enabled new
exciting frontiers to be broken in the upstream and downstream sectors of the
industry. ROAVs are unmanned light-weight aircrafts that are remotely
controlled and often kitted with instruments and cameras for diverse
use-cases. Attaching a high definition camera converts the vehicles into data
gathering systems that can work in remote, dangerous and hazardous
environments.
As part of the Shell Group's technology replication initiative, the use of ROAV technology for Flare inspection is being adopted as part of SPDC's Asset Integrity Inspection procedure. A Non-Associated Gas (NAG) plant, a swing producer for a LNG facility, was selected as first deployment for this technology's application in SPDC. This first deployment at the selected asset clearly demonstrates the following benefits; Elimination of working at height, Maintain safe distance from operating asset, Increased facility uptime and reduced deferment/interruption of operations. The application of this technology presents an innovative tool for asset integrity management with seamless data acquisition and storage which can be trended for condition monitoring application. It can be also used to inspect structures like masts, under-decks of offshore platforms, chimneys and tanks |
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