风暴骑士：海上运营商测试自主检查车

Ocean Aero 的自主水下和水面航行器最初是为防御目的而设计的，旨在让海上平台在猛烈风暴过后恢复生产。

詹妮弗
帕拉尼奇
哈特能源

墨西哥湾 (GoM) 的一家深水运营商正在测试第三代自动驾驶车辆，该车辆可以自行航行，一次潜水数天，并在恶劣的海上天气后检查海上设施。

袭击海上平台的飓风可能会导致墨西哥湾的碳氢化合物生产停止，并损害运营商在此过程中的利润。 

基思·布莱斯通
“TRITON] 可以对平台进行目视检查，确保安全性和可靠性，从而有望使平台启动并运行，并让人们比现在更快地重返工作岗位。”——Ocean Aero 参谋长 Keith Blystone 。（来源：海洋航空）

在检查基础设施之前，猛烈风暴路径上的设施无法恢复正常运行。Ocean Aero 正在开发一种自主水面和水下航行器，可以在现场抵御风暴并进行检查，有可能使未损坏的关闭平台恢复生产力。 

Ocean Aero 参谋长 Keith Blystone 表示，GoM 操作员正在飓风季节之前测试 TRITON 自主水下和水面航行器 (AUSV) 的检查能力。

他说，这个想法是将 TRITON 发送到预计会发生破坏性风暴的地点。

“当风暴到来时，你可以有能力将 TRITON 淹没，这样它就会潜入水下并有效地渡过风暴，”他说。“只需深入水面以下20、30米，就能有效渡过风暴。”

在经历了风暴之后，TRITON 就可以开始工作了。

布莱斯通说：“我们可以对平台进行目视检查，确保安全性和可靠性，从而有望使平台启动并运行，并让人们比现在更快地重返工作岗位。”

虽然 TRITON 尚未在风暴环境中运行，但 Ocean Aero 正在与运营商合作证明这一概念。

虽然飓风后检查是 Ocean Aero 认为 TRITON 在墨西哥湾的主要任务之一，但 Blystone 表示 AUSV 也可以处理其他任务。

他说，其中第一个是泄漏检测和验证，该公司正在与运营商合作验证这一功能。

他说，TRITON 可以自动游到可能存在渗漏或泄漏的区域，这最初可以通过卫星图像来识别。 

该车辆可以收集水样并使用相机对水面的光泽进行成像。可以在 TRITON 中添加额外的传感器来收集不同的数据。 

Ocean Aero 还与一家运营商合作开展通信网关项目。TRITON 自主收集传感器读数，并可以通过无线电网络将其传送到海上平台。

“这只是加快了数据收集和数据卸载的速度，”布莱斯通说。“人们手中的数据越多，决策速度就越快。”

他说，Ocean Aero 还看到了管道检查方面的机会，可以让 TRITON 配备侧扫声纳传感器，然后让它沿着管道路线游泳以检查其完整性。

数据采集

Blystone 表示，AUSV 具有多功能有效载荷能力，允许使用不同的传感器独立收集数据。因此，他说，它比执行数据收集的载人船只更安全、更便宜。

Ocean Aero TRITON 探索风帆
TRITON 探索公海，利用风力航行。（来源：海洋航空）

他说：“你可以将自动驾驶汽车送入有时充满挑战的环境，而仅仅从安全角度来看，你可能不想派人来。” “它可以让你在水面上拥有更广泛的存在，从而可以收集更多数据。”

他表示，AUSV 的目标不是取代人类互动，而是增强人类互动。 

TRITON 长 14 英尺，干重略小于 800 磅。两三个人可以从岸边坡道或起重机上发射它。它也可以从更大的船上发射。

该船可自动部署并依靠风能和太阳能以高达 5 节的速度运行约三个月。

在暴风雨期间，TRITON 可以淹没长达五天。

“当你想让它潜水时，翼帆会缩回到船体中，形成潜艇的形状，可以潜到一百米深，”他说。“这里有很多关于插入位置和插入方式的多功能性。” 

Ocean Aero 最近庆祝了成立 10 周年，TRITON 已经投入商业几年了。布莱斯通表示，大量的研发工作已投入到制造和改进双模态水面和海底船舶上，该船最初主要用于国防工业。（Ocean Aero 指出，TRITON 的雷达和视觉特征较低，雷达横截面在四分之一英里之外就会消失。）

自主深潜潜水使 TRITON 能够避免被发现并躲避威胁。

GoM 石油和天然气运营商正在试用的 TRITON AUSV 是第三代型号。

Ocean Aero TRITON 空中射击
空中拍摄的 TRITON 在地面充电，太阳能发电能力为每小时 470 瓦。（来源：海洋航空）

“任何成为潜艇的东西都必须处理诸如船的所有方面的海洋化之类的问题。因此，能够与水直接接触——能够承受压力——我们的船可以航行到一百米深，”他说。这意味着 AUSV 需要“既能承受水又能承受压力的组件”。

他说，该公司的诞生是因为需要拥有一个能够在水面和水下运行的自主系统。

“如果你只接触表面，那就太棒了，直到你遇到我们所说的“表面能量”。表面能量可能通过风暴、巨大的飓风而来，在这种情况下，你就处于充满挑战的环境中“能够渡过难关，”他说。“如果你这样做，一旦风暴过去，资产很可能不会处于良好状态。”

相反，布莱斯通指出，水下单位有其自身的限制。 

“水下平台面临的挑战是，要么它们必须拴在更大的船上才能依靠电力运行，要么它们的电池只能持续这么长时间，因此它们的持续时间或使用机会更短，”他说。

他说，TRITON 可以在海底运行 8 天，然后需要充电。为了充电，它会浮出水面，让太阳能电池板吸收阳光并为 AUSV 充电。充满电需要 24 小时。TRITON没有配备柴油发电机，在海面以下2m的深度可以以每小时50瓦的速度充电，在水面上充电速度可达每小时470瓦。

“它可以有效地利用风能和太阳能，”他说。

原文链接/hartenergy

Rider of the Storm: Offshore Operator Testing Autonomous Inspection Vehicle

Ocean Aero's autonomous underwater and surface vehicle, originally designed for defense purposes, aims to get offshore platforms back on production after violent storms.

Jennifer
Pallanich
Hart Energy

A deepwater operator in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is testing a third-generation autonomous vehicle that can sail itself, dive for days at a time and inspect offshore facilities after violent offshore weather.

The hurricanes that hammer offshore platforms can halt hydrocarbon production in the GoM and batter an operator’s bottom line in the process. 

Keith Blystone
“[TRITON] can take visual inspections of the platform and ensure the safety and reliability to hopefully get the platforms up and running and get people back to work faster than they otherwise would today.” — Keith Blystone, Ocean Aero chief of staff. (Source: Ocean Aero)

Facilities in the path of a fierce storm cannot go back online until infrastructure is inspected. Ocean Aero is developing an autonomous surface and underwater vehicle that can ride out the storm on site and perform inspections, potentially returning undamaged shut-in platforms back to productivity. 

Keith Blystone, Ocean Aero chief of staff, said a GoM operator is testing the inspection capabilities of the TRITON autonomous underwater and surface vehicle (AUSV) ahead of hurricane season.

The idea, he said, is to send the TRITON to the location where a destructive storm is expected to pass.

“When the storm arrives, you can have the ability to submerge the TRITON, so it dives underwater and effectively rides out the storm,” he said. “You only have to go 20, 30 meters below the surface of the water to effectively ride out the storm.”

After weathering the storm, the TRITON can get to work.

“It can take visual inspections of the platform and ensure the safety and reliability to hopefully get the platforms up and running and get people back to work faster than they otherwise would today,” Blystone said.

While the TRITON has not yet operated in a storm environment, Ocean Aero is working with the operator to prove the concept.

While post-hurricane inspection is one of the main undertakings Ocean Aero sees for the TRITON in the GoM, Blystone said the AUSV can handle other tasks as well.

The first of those, he said, is leak detection and validation, and the company is working with an operator to validate this capability.

The TRITON can autonomously swim to an area where there may be a possibility of a seep or a leak, which could initially be identified through satellite imagery, he said. 

The vehicle can collect a sample of water and use a camera to image sheens on the water. Additional sensors can be added to the TRITON to collect different data. 

Ocean Aero is also working with an operator on a communications gateway project. The TRITON autonomously gathers sensor readings and can communicate them via a radio network to offshore platforms.

“It just speeds up both the data collection as well as the data offload,” Blystone said. “Faster data in people's hands, faster decision making is the notion there.”

Ocean Aero also sees opportunity in pipeline inspection, which would have the TRITON equipped with sensors for side scan sonar before sending it to swim alongside a pipeline route to inspect its integrity, he said.

Data collection

Blystone said the AUSV has a versatile payload capability, allowing different sensors to be used to gather data independently. As such, he said, it is safer and less expensive than manned vessels that perform data collection.

Ocean Aero TRITON Explore Wind Sail
The TRITON exploring the open sea, harnessing wind to sail its course. (Source: Ocean Aero)

“You're able to send autonomous vehicles into sometimes challenging environments where maybe you wouldn't want to send humans, just from a safety standpoint,” he said. “It allows you to have a broader presence out of the water, which allows it to collect more data.”

He said that the goal of the AUSV is not to replace human interaction, but to augment it. 

The TRITON is 14 ft long and a little less than 800 lb dry. Two or three people can launch it from a shoreside ramp or crane. It can also be launched from a larger boat.

The boat autonomously deploys and runs for about three months on wind and solar power at speeds of up to 5 knots.

During storms, the TRITON can submerge for up to five days.

“When you want it to dive, the wing sail retracts into the hull of the boat itself, takes that shape of a submarine and can dive up to a hundred meters deep,” he said. “There’s a lot of versatility as to where and how you can plug stuff in.” 

Ocean Aero recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and the TRITON has been commercially active for a couple of years. Blystone said a lot of R&D has gone into creating and refining the dual-modality surface and subsea vessel, which initially had been used mostly in the defense industry. (Ocean Aero notes that the TRITON has a low radar and visual signature with a radar cross section that disappears outside of a quarter of a mile.)

Autonomous deep dive submergence allows the TRITON to avoid detection and evade threats.

The TRITON AUSVs on trial with the GoM oil and gas operator are third-generation models.

Ocean Aero TRITON Aerial Shot
An aerial shot of the TRITON, charging on the surface at a capacity of 470 watts of solar power per hour. (Source: Ocean Aero)

“Anything that becomes a submarine has to deal with stuff like marinization of all the aspects of the boat. So being able to take direct contact with the water — being able to withstand pressure — our boat can go up to a hundred meters deep,” he said. This means the AUSV needs “components that can both withstand water and pressure.”

He said the company was born out of the need to have an autonomous system capable of operating both on and below the surface.

“If you’re surface only, that's fantastic until you run into what we call ‘surface energy.’ Surface energy could come by way of a storm, a giant hurricane, in which case then you're in challenging environments to be able to ride that out,” he said. “If you do, chances are the asset’s not going to be in great shape once the storm passes through.”

Conversely, underwater-only units have their own constraints, Blystone noted. 

“The challenge with underwater-only platforms is either they have to be tethered to a larger vessel to run on power, or their batteries only last so long and so they have shorter duration or utilization opportunities,” he said.

The TRITON, he said, can operate subsea for 8 days before requiring a charge. To charge, it surfaces to allow solar panels to soak up the sun and charge the AUSV. A full charge takes 24 hours. The TRITON, which does not have a diesel generator, can charge at 50 watt per hour at a depth of 2 m below the ocean’s surface and up to 470 watt per hour on the surface.

“It operates effectively on wind power as well as solar power,” he said.