Mauricio Galassi

Virtual reality techniques for planning the offshore robotizing

Remote locations such as ultra-deep water reservoirs (400 m or deeper) have been increasing the production complexity and logistic costs for Oil & Gas industry. In such conditions, oil exploration feasibility depends on new technologies to optimize production efficiency. One possible solution to this challenge is to increase the degree of automation in production units. New design concepts consider the use of robotic devices in such scenarios. In this paper we present the use of virtual reality techniques in a robotics framework, SimUEP- Robotics (Robotics Simulator for Stationary Production Units), aimed to enable planning the offshore platform robotizing. SimUEP-Robotics has an integrated Virtual Reality Engine specially tailored to provide realistic visualization of large offshore scene models in an immersive environment. Through the use of those visualization tools it is possible, for example, to better understand the quality of the planned robot trajectory and propose new algorithms that can be further evaluated in the virtual environment. We argue that the validation process in an immersive virtual environment reduces risks and costs of real operation tests scenarios.

A Robotics Framework for Planning the Offshore Robotizing Using Virtual Reality Techniques

The Oil & Gas industry has seen increasing costs of finding and extracting hydrocarbons, especially in remote locations, ultra-deep water reservoirs (400 m or deeper) or in hostile environments. Those new exploration frontiers have been increasing the production complexity and logistic costs. In such conditions, oil exploration feasibility depends on new technologies to optimize production efficiency. One possible solution to this challenge is to increase the degree of automation in production units. New design concepts also consider the use of robotic devices in such scenarios. In this paper we present a robotics framework, SimUEP-Robotics (Robotics Simulator for Stationary Production Units Unidades Estacionárias de Produção or UEPs, in Portuguese), aimed to enable planning the offshore platform robotizing using virtual reality techniques. The SimUEP-Robotics is based on ROS (Robot Operating System), a middleware for exchanging messages between different devices and processes that cooperate to accomplish a robotics task. SimUEP-Robotics is designed concerning the offshore requirements and is a flexible framework that allows the inclusion of new robots and devices in a virtual operation scenario. This capability enables the robotization and automation of offshore facilities that gradually evolve, starting from a complete virtual scenario towards a complete robotic system operating on a real platform, progressively including real devices. SimUEP-Robotics has an integrated Virtual Reality Engine (VR-Engine) specially tailored to provide realistic visualization of large offshore scene models in an immersive environment. The monitoring and management of remote operations of Stationary Production Units (SPU) is an activity that can also benefit by the usage of virtual reality scenarios due to the potential to reduce the complexity and difficulty in visualizing and validating simulations of operations performed by robots on a real SPU. The framework supports simultaneous simulation of multiple robots equipped with sensors and actuators like cameras, laser range finders and robotic manipulators. SimUEP-Robotics has also some specialized visualization tools like trajectory visualizer, ghostview robot animation, point-to-point measurement and a scenario editor that allows the user customize the target scenario accordingly. Through the use of those visualization tools it is possible, for example, to better understand the quality of the planned robot trajectory and propose new algorithms that can be further evaluated in the virtual environment. In conclusion, we argue that the validation process in an immersive virtual environment reduces risks and costs of real operation tests scenarios. SimUEP-Robotics has also an integrated Robotics-Simulator which is responsible for taking care of task planning and execution based on the information of the virtual scenario provided by the VR-Engine. To illustrate the effectiveness of the framework, different robotics applications were developed. One is an underwater application that calculates the whole dynamics of an operated ROV to simulate and test complex ROV operations in deep waters, like the connection of a flowline to a Christmas tree. The other one represents a topside offshore platform scenario where different virtual robots, derived from real mechanisms like Motoman DIA10, Puma 560, Seekur and others, operates. Results obtained on a pick and place task demonstrate the benefits of the proposed robotics framework for offshore applications.

SimVR-Robotics: A Virtual Reality Tool for Evaluating and Planning the Use of Robots in Offshore Scenarios

The Oil & Gas industry have been focusing on robots to accomplish several offshore activities as a way to diminish production costs, replace workers during hazardous operational procedures, enabling exploration in remote places and, in particular, deep-water regions. The project and validation of a robotic task on a virtual environment aids studies on how to introduce robots in these environments in an efficient way and, when compared to actual tests, significantly reduce costs and help to mitigate operational risks. In this context, we present SimVR-Robotics, a virtual reality tool to plan, simulate and evaluate the use of robots on offshore scenarios. SimVR-Robotics is capable to recreate realistic environments and to reproduce accurately physics with multiple robots. The user can create complex scenes from a model library and simulate them in real time or, if desired, use the graphic editor to create and configure its own robot. Several components are provided to view the simulation data, control the robots and objects in the scene, and assess the feasibility of the projected scenarios. In addition, the software offers, to advanced users, access to its internal API to control the various components of the scene. As the tool is based on the ROS (Robot Operating System), it is extremely easy to integrate with other external simulators. In this article, we discuss the SimVR-Robotics architecture, as well as its most important resources. To illustrate its benefits, present two real applications: a trajectory study of a robotic arm and planning an underwater operation using an ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle).