ORCA HUB SECURES £2.5m TO EXPAND ROBOTICS RESEARCH
Using robots to make offshore infrastructure inspection and repair safer is moving a step closer following the injection of £2.5 million of further funding from UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) into the ORCA Hub.
Founded in 2017 and led by Heriot-Watt and the University of Edinburgh, the ORCA Hub which includes Imperial College London, Liverpool and Oxford Universities, is supporting energy transition and the growth of renewable energy.
The Hub aims to help the offshore energy industry to use robots to safely inspect, maintain and repair platforms, wind turbines, and other infrastructure, guided by human experts on ships or back on shore.
£600,000 of the new funding will be used to help deliver six demonstration projects with industrial partners, including the inspection of wind turbine foundations and the deployment of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors.
The remaining £1.9 million will fund an extension of ORCA Hub’s activities to see if technologies and processes developed by the Hub can be used in other sectors, ranging from construction and urban infrastructure through to decommissioning and waste management.
Yvan Petillot (pictured with Spot robot), professor of robotics and autonomous systems at Heriot-Watt University and co-academic lead of the National Robotarium, has been appointed as the ORCA Hub’s new director.
He takes over from Professor David Lane, founding director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, who will continue to support the Hub as an advisor to its independent steering committee.
Professor Petillot said: “Robots have the potential to carry out inspection and maintenance in hazardous environments, reducing the risks of putting divers into the water in harsh conditions or workers operating at height on wind turbines.
“The international offshore energy industry is undergoing a revolution, adopting aggressive net-zero objectives, and shifting rapidly towards large scale offshore wind energy production.
“The long-term industry vision is for a digitised offshore energy field, operated, inspected and maintained from the shore using robots, digital architectures and cloud-based processes to realise this vision.
“However, the recent pandemic has highlighted a widespread need for remote operations in many other industrial sectors.
“This funding extension aims to accelerate the translation of the research into our existing industry network, working with companies including Wood, EDF and Ross Robotics, while expanding into new sectors by adapting the current research and tackling the novel challenges these sectors bring.”
