The paper gives an overview of the research project SBC, aimed at the environment protection and rehabilitation, by means of an innovative robotic equipment, purposely developed with active interaction between academia and industries, showing joint issues as for scientific, technological, economic, social and cultural aspects, along the challenging track to eco-consistency. The falls-off bring forth: - a new technology: the sub-bottom wire cutting; - a reliably tailored set-up: the robotic platform; - a low-impact duty-scheme: the dig-and-saw process; - a safe work-cycle: the remote monitoring and control. The Sub Bottom Cutter (SBC) approach grants highly conservative decommissioning operations of dismissed submerged offshore structures. Due to environmental hostility, the robot is remotely controlled from the surface, where a human operator monitors the task advance intervening if any snag occurs. The equipment uses the diamond wire technology (DWT) to cut the pile foundations beneath the sea bottom. The result is the full removal of the structure, which may be made by steel, concrete or a combination of the two, and the consequent restoration of the underwater environment, according to the enacted laws and regulations. The project originality relies on combining and improving known and co-operating technologies. The prospected technique allows the environmentally safe disposal of offshore installations (wellheads, platforms, terminals and sea-lines), as well as marine and harbour structures, limiting the volume of the seabed excavation to less than 10 m(exp3) per each access to the structure to be cut, like, jacket piles or wellheads, etc.. The excavated volume of the solid materials per single dig is estimated to be 100-150 times less than the one removed by conventional dredge systems. The project was successfully fulfilled, and a prototypal equipment has been tested during July 2003, within a marine surroundings, properly accomplishing the cutting sequence.
The restoring of dismissed offshore oil plants by a remotely operated robotic platform
Restaurierung aufgegebener Off-Shore-Ölanlagen mit Hilfe einer ferngelenkten Roboterplattform
2004
9 Seiten, 13 Bilder, 13 Quellen
Conference paper
English