简介：原本应用于外太空的机器人控制系统，目前正转向应用于另外一个极限环境－－深海海底。位于挪威斯塔万格的海底钻机公司声称已经批准Energid 技术，用以开发机器人控制系统，为超深水和北极寒冷环境下新一代自动钻井系统和勘探平台服务。与传统钻机不同，新型自动钻机将直接在洋底作业，通过脐带与水面操控船进行电力传送和通信。

                                       （海底自动钻机想象图）

A robot control system originally designed for outer space applications is moving to another extreme environment: the seafloor. Seabed Rig has licensed Energid Technologies to create a robot control system for its next-generation automated drilling and exploration platforms that will operate in ultradeepwater and Arctic environments.

Unlike traditional surface rigs, the new autonomous drilling rig will lie on the ocean floor and connect to a surface vessel via an umbilical for transmission of power and communications. The rig consists of a patented encapsulated design that ensures zero discharge of drilling mud to the sea and maintains the same safety barriers and measures that conventional drilling rigs employ, according to the Stavanger-based Seabed Rig.

The rig is made up of modules that can be lowered through standard moon pools inside the surface vessel and delivered in place by means of guide wires. To avoid contaminating the surrounding environment, the rig is filled with water, pressure compensated, and encapsulated.

All rig functions will be controlled remotely from a control room on the surface vessel or from land. The drillers will have access to an interactive 3D model of the rig with all accompanying machines and modules, which replaces the traditional view afforded through the window of a driller’s cabin. The 3D model is continuously updated with data from the subsea control system such that better control is realized and modifications to the drilling program can be implemented quickly, if necessary.

Seabed Rig states that this level of automated drilling in environments as severe as ultradeepwater and the Arctic is only possible using robotics. Energid Technologies will use its Actin robotics software technology to control the motion of multiple robots, each with many moving parts. These robots will perform various tasks on the drilling deck at the seafloor, including inserting drill pipe, repairing and exchanging broken machinery, and carrying out work tasks that are not covered by other machines.

The Actin system employs algorithmic, language, and software-implementation components to organize and consolidate the large and complex fielded robotics control systems. The many patches and logical control paths added by the robotics development team is organized into a flexible logic tree that better represents any additions and modifications that otherwise might be informally added to the control system, according to Energid. Actin also reportedly provides an organizational method that supports so-called dynamic programming, which is the storage of subproblem solutions to prevent duplicate calculation.

The result is a control system that will allow the subsea robotics arms to more easily reach around obstacles, optimize strength, and smoothly avoid joint limits. “Actin will maximize performance and make control from the surface easier by allowing direct control over hand placement,” said Kenneth Mikalsen, chief technology officer for Seabed Rig.

                        （自动钻机的所有操控都有像这样的控制室来控制）

With drilling rates still in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per day, Seabed Rig also sees this technology as a cost-effective alternative to drilling in extreme deepwater and Arctic regions? regions which are expected to grow in importance as an energy source. According to a recent assessment by the US Geological Survey, the area north of the Arctic Circle alone may hold 30% of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil.

Neil Tardella, chief operating officer for Energid, is optimistic that this unique application of his company’s control system will alter the way in which the industry approaches offshore oil and gas drilling and production. “We developed Actin for NASA [the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration] robots for the harsh environment of space. With it, we can bring to reality Seabed Rig’s vision of undersea robots.”

More information on the Actin system can be found at Energid’s website.  Visit Seabed Rig’s website to learn more about their autonomous drilling rig.

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