Statoil與 Kongsberg合作研發水下機器人

STAVANGER, Norway — Kongsberg Maritime and Statoil have signed an agreement with Eelume, a NTNU spin-off company, to accelerate new technology that will significantly reduce costs related to subsea inspection, maintenance and repair operations.

NTNU and Sintef have conducted research on snake robotics for more than 10 years. Eelume is now developing a disruptive solution for underwater inspection and maintenance in the form of a swimming robot.

“Eelume is a good example of how new?technology?and innovation contributes to cost reduction. Instead of using large and expensive vessels for small jobs, we now introduce a flexible robot acting as a self-going janitor on the seabed. To support smaller companies in bringing new?technology?to the market is an important part of our research portfolio,” said Elisabeth Birkeland Kvalheim, chief technology officer, Statoil.

The idea is to let these robots do inspection and light intervention jobs on the seabed, reducing the use of large and expensive vessels.

With its snake-like form, the slender and flexible body of the Eelume robot provides access to confined areas that are difficult to access with existing technology.

Eelume robots will be permanently installed on the seabed and will perform planned and on-demand inspections and interventions.