Ground Robotics Enabler for Normally Unattended Installations

Abstract

Normally Unattended Installations with presence of people on site only once per year (NUI-1Y) for maintenance campaigns is the ultimate aim of unmanned concepts and a new frontier for cost reduction. Ground robotics is one enabler of this goal. This new technology is in its infancy and still requires technological and organizational advancements to be readily accepted and supported by the industry. Total fully supports the unmanned concept and has been involved for several years in the development of autonomous ground robots capable of working in potentially hazardous environments. Adopting ground robots in our operations is not only a matter of Technology Readiness Level but also requires expertise on how to use this new technology. Accordingly, the Total roadmap for robotics development focuses on three key areas:–Technology development: Starting from the ARGOS Challenge back in 2014 - Total has been engaged in the development of a new series of robots for anomaly detection / emergency response, and started a Joint Industry Project in 2019 on work class operating robots with simple and complex manipulation capabilities. The anomaly detection robot is now ready to be deployed on operational sites with the first deployment in the UK planned for September 2019.–Operating Experience: Identifying limitations and capabilities of robots is essential to integrating them into our operating concepts. Additionally, Total has set up a robotics development platform where robots are regularly tested and challenged by Field Operations personnel to find new use cases and to share this new technology within the organization.–Reliability: Unmanned design concepts using robots will not be accepted if the robots are not reliable. Therefore, to give confidence to decision makers, long term pilots are planned on several operational sites to gain the thousands of hours of operating experience needed before approving the development of new assets employing this technology. This presentation gives an overview of the Total roadmap on robotics, sharing results of the latest developments and how robots are being integrated in our operating philosophies.