NONDESTRUCTIVE INSPECTION THROUGH ADVANCED TELEMANIPULATION SYSTEMS -FROM THE LABORATORY TO OFFSHORE

This paper describes the purposes, the technical approaches and the tr ial results of the ATES system. The project aims at the adaptation of innovative robotics technologies and their integration with an industr ial ROV to set up an advanced underwater telerobot targeted to perform , in a cost-effective way, a large spread of complex tasks related to the offshore industry, such as NDT inspection, construction support, p latform maintenance and subsea plant servicing. The key robotics techn ologies considered are: supervisory control, scene reconstruction and telepresence. The supervisory control includes also the manipulator fo rce control while the scene reconstruction techniques are able to comp ensate for ROV motion during manipulation. To evaluate the technical a nd economic validity of the system, extensive trials in protected wate rs have been carried out under operative control by ROV supervisors. T he presented trials results demonstrated the soundness ofthe superviso ry control approach, along with the maturity and reliability ofthe imp lemented robotics technologies with respect to the current offshore fi eld applications. The availability of proven and reliable telerobotics systems for performing underwater complex tasks provides new possibil ities and opportunities to the installation and management of deep-wat er systems.