Operation Room: A Key Component for Upscaling Robotic Solutions on Site

Abstract

Many oil & gas operators are now seeing unmanned facilities as the next frontier for safer operations and further cost reductions. However, these benefits only appear once the time between site visits is extended as much as possible. In its Next-Generation Facilities concept, Total is pushing the limits by targeting planned interventions only once a year. Tremendous challenges must be tackled to make this concept a reality, from initial lean and robust facility design to management of operations. Subsea installations remain a source of inspiration on many levels, particularly for the handling of inaccessible installations using Remote Operated Vehicles. As a result, Total has been very active in the field of autonomous ground robotics for many years with its ARGOS project. Many other oil & gas operators or robot manufacturers are also following similar paths. Consequently, more and more videos showing a robot on site, tele-operated or not, in the direct sight of a technician in charge of its control have been published. Improving robot capabilities, testing and learning how to handle these new tools is important and a very encouraging signal for the industry, but the integration and cost scaling effect are still to be demonstrated. A step change in the experimentation has to materialize, since one robot alone on a site will not be able to achieve much. Moreover, the reproduction of the scheme ‘one robot/one technician’ is not optimal when numerous robots are involved. Therefore, the addition of a new component in the field architecture in charge of bridging robot site activities and the off-site Control Room is seen as essential to rise to the next level and meet the requirement of the new operating philosophy: continuous operations with multiple robots working simultaneously on an unattended site. Total calls this new function the "Operation Room". In Total's concept, the Operation Room is located next to the existing Control Room which would also become remote. From the Operation Room, robot panel operators, very much like air traffic controllers, will remotely supervise and coordinate the robots that will autonomously perform the very activities that the field operators once used to do on conventional facilities, from routine operation and maintenance tasks to emergency response. This article will give an overview and some examples of how Total has matured the design of its Operation Room concept, including a description of the key elements that have to be addressed to manage a fleet of autonomous robots in an efficient and safe manner from a remote location.