Summary
- Profile Type
- Technology offer
- POD Reference
- TOGB20230131020
- Term of Validity
- 31 January 2023 - 30 January 2025
- Company's Country
- United Kingdom
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement with technical assistance
- Targeted Countries
- All countries
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General information
- Short Summary
- A UK company has developed and validated a robotic platform crawling complex underwater objects such as ship hulls, turbine foundations etc. It carries built-in and optional tools for weld inspections, monitoring, water jetting, maintenance etc. Businesses and departments doing inspection and maintenance jobs in oil and gas, wind and ship care sectors are sought for commercial agreements with technical assistance.
- Full Description
-
One of the leading technology and innovation companies in the UK has developed a new robotic underwater platform (see the Pictures). It targets oil & gas, offshore and ship care sectors. Inspection, monitoring and maintenance in these sectors is currently handled using divers. It is a complex and time-consuming operation. Robots have not been up to the job until now because of the complexity and curvature of underwater structures (and ship hulls).
The new robot successfully crawls on curved surfaces such as ships. At up to 50 mm/s it either monitors the surface with its HD camera and lighting system, carries out non-destructive testing (NDT) or does something different. The platform can take on a 25 kg load of specific equipment.
It specifically has the capability to clean and inspect steel monopile foundations of wind turbines. The NDT methods termed UT (Ultrasonic Thickness) thickness, Eddy current and TOFD (Time of Flight Diffraction) UT measure wall thickness and detect weld defects.
Depending on requirements, it can operate both internally and externally and is rated to 60m depth of operation. It is equipped with a water jet cleaning system to remove surface layer marine biofouling and can be deployed as a 2-person crew. It has been extensively tested and validated under different conditions.
The company is seeking inspection and maintenance companies in the sectors of energy, renewables and shipping, for commercial agreements with technical assistance. - Advantages and Innovations
- This is the first robot platform to crawl on complex and curved underwater objects. It therefore obviates diving jobs in hazardous environments.
- Stage of Development
- Already on the market
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- IPR status
- Secret know-how
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
Type of partner sought: offshore wind energy, oil and gas and ship care sectors
Specific area of partner sought: businesses or departments who provide inspection, monitoring and maintenance in these sectors. The job title can be asset integrity manager, offshore foundations engineer, innovation manager, business development, sales, distributors etc.
Role of partner sought: to adopt the robot platform to their use cases under commercial agreements with technical assistance. The UK company provides the necessary training but equally adapts the platform’s capabilities for specific instrumentation and tools. Once the know-how has been transferred, the partners are likely to become distributors for the platform. - Type and Size of Partner
- Big company
- SME <=10
- SME 11-49
- SME 50 - 249
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement with technical assistance
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 02009005 - Shipbuilding
- 04005008 - Wind energy
- 01004011 - Maintenance Management System
- Market keywords
- 06001007 - Other oil and gas
- 06003003 - Wind energy
- 08002004 - Robotics
- 09001007 - Other transportation
- Targeted countries
- All countries
