ROBPLAN: Autonomous Inspection and Maintenance Robotics with Automated Planning and Acting
摘要
This paper presents the latest advancements in automated planning and acting (AI planning) for robots in inspection and maintenance (I&M) within the ROBPLAN project. Offshore and onshore oil and gas (O&G) facilities, characterized by hazardous environments and remote locations, benefit significantly from robotic assistance. The market for I&M robots is growing and is projected to reach 72.5 billion USD by 2029. Despite progress in autonomous robotics functions such as path planning and object detection, a gap remains in coordinating these functions through high-level reasoning systems, especially in the challenging environments of O&G facilities. This paper details methods, field trials, and use cases for Uncrewed Ground Vehicles (UGVs) and Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in I&M, focusing on AI planning. Key contributions include the analysis of industry-relevant use cases, the development of ISAR, a tool for integrating robots into plant operator systems, and Norns, a tool for in-situ planning and execution. Additional contributions involve the integration of AI planning with Guidance, Navigation, and Control systems, the development of methods for AI planning of inspection and maintenance (I&M) operations based on various AI planning methods (e.g., timeline-based, temporal), and the validation of these AI planning methods through simulations and field trials at Equinor’s K-Lab facility in Norway.