Tools and methods to manage risk in autonomous subsea inspection, maintenance and repair operations
Doctoral thesis
Date
2018Metadata
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- Institutt for marin teknikk [3564]
Abstract
Autonomous subsea interventions are anticipated to decrease operational costs, reduce response time and optimally maintain the subsea infrastructure. However, the introduction of autonomy may lead to emerging risk factors in subsea intervention operations. Research on managing risk in future autonomous subsea interventions is scarce. At the same time, the industry and research communities are spearheading this technological change in subsea inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) operations by developing and demonstrating new concepts to realize autonomous subsea interventions. Techniques to identify, assess, and manage risk factors affecting autonomous subsea IMR operations are therefore required.
The purpose of this thesis is to develop novel tools and methods to manage risk in autonomous subsea IMR operations. Gaps in the industry standards, which lay requirements for current subsea interventions, have been mapped. The results show that technology and knowledge gaps exist in realizing autonomous subsea interventions and that the current standards are only partly applicable to future IMR systems. Risk influencing factors inherent in autonomous subsea interventions have been identified and analyzed. A Bayesian belief network is proposed to derive the probability of aborting an autonomous subsea IMR operation. Monitoring risk-influencing factors in terms of risk indicators can contribute to improved situational awareness and path planning. The proposed risk based indicators can highlight risk trends for the autonomous remotely operated vehicle.
Vehicle behavior under faults, failures and exposure to surrounding subsea obstacles has been explored in this thesis. A fuzzy inference system is proposed to derive a decision support basis for the autonomous remotely operated vehicle to make decisions to either continue or discontinue an IMR operation. It is observed that fuzzy logic can be used to suggest appropriate safe actions when component faults or failures occur. Concerning avoiding collision with surrounding obstacles, a novel underwater collision avoidance system is proposed consisting of safety envelopes around the autonomous remotely operated vehicle and subsea traffic rules. The subsea traffic rules are proposed for known static and dynamic obstacles in the vicinity of the autonomous remotely operated vehicle.
Overall, researchers, original equipment manufacturers, subsea system developers, and safety regulating bodies may benefit from the results of this thesis. The proposed tools and methods contribute to efficient identification, assessment and management of risks during autonomous subsea IMR operations.
Has parts
Paper 1: Hegde, Jeevith; Utne, Ingrid Bouwer; Schjølberg, Ingrid. Applicability of current remotely operated vehicle standards and guidelines to autonomous subsea IMR operations. I: Proceedings ASME 2015 34th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering Volume 7: Ocean Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1115/OMAE2015-41620Paper 2: Hegde, Jeevith; Utne, Ingrid Bouwer; Schjølberg, Ingrid. Development of collision risk indicators for autonomous subsea inspection maintenance and repair. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 2016 (44) s. 440-452 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2016.11.002
Paper 3: Hegde, Jeevith; Utne, Ingrid Bouwer; Schjølberg, Ingrid; Thorkildsen, Brede. A Bayesian approach to risk modeling of autonomous subsea intervention operations. - This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The final published version is avialable in Reliability Engineering & System Safety 2018 ;Volum 175. s. 142-159 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2018.03.019
Paper 4: Hegde, Jeevith; Utne, Ingrid Bouwer; Schjølberg, Ingrid; Thorkildsen, Brede. Application of fuzzy logic for safe autonomous subsea IMR operations. I: Safety and Reliability of Complex Engineered Systems. CRC Press 2015, s. 415-422
Paper 5: Hegde, Jeevith; Henriksen, Eirik Hexeberg; Utne, Ingrid Bouwer; Schjølberg, Ingrid. Development of safety envelopes and subsea traffic rules for autonomous remotely operated vehicles. - This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The final published version is avialable in Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 2019 ;Volum 60. s. 145-158 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2019.03.006
Paper 6: Candeloro, Mauro; Lekkas, Anastasios M.; Hegde, Jeevith; Sørensen, Asgeir Johan. A 3D Dynamic Voronoi Diagram-Based Path-Planning System for UUVs. I: OCEANS 2016 MTS/IEEE Monterey. IEEE conference proceedings 2016 - Is not included due to copyright available at http://doi.org/10.1109/OCEANS.2016.7761427