DeepStar 11304: Laying the Groundwork for AUV Standards for Deepwater Fields

Abstract

Emerging autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) developments across the oil and gas industry now include pipeline inspection; structural survey; deepwater inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM); and field resident systems for remote/harsh environments. As these capabilities mature, AUVs will become an increasingly important tool for deepwater field operations. Early adoption of AUV standards will facilitate more rapid deployment of AUV technologies and enable the industry to reap a wide range of safety, environmental, operational, and economic benefits for its deepwater fields. The development of industry standards for AUV interfaces will facilitate more rapid implementation of AUV capabilities and lead to more cost-effective, compatible system designs by AUV vendors and field hardware manufacturers. The development of regulatory standards for the interpretation and acceptance of autonomous inspection results is also an essential step toward the achievement of more cost-effective operations and regulatory oversight of deepwater subsea fields. This paper describes a future vision for the use of AUVs in deepwater field operations, the benefits to be realized, and the future capabilities of AUVs that must be anticipated and facilitated within AUV standards to achieve that vision. Additionally, this paper describes the goals and objectives of DeepStar Project 11304, which is laying the groundwork to achieve accelerated standardization of AUV interfaces and the development of regulatory standards for AUV inspections.

Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Technology Evolution and Implications

“…However, based on an increasing interest for rapid data harvesting and data transfer, this is expected to change soon (Jacobson et al, 2013). However, based on an increasing interest for rapid data harvesting and data transfer, this is expected to change soon (Jacobson et al, 2013).…”

“…Standards organizations are nonprofits, and their contributing members are volunteers with already demanding day jobs, so strides in standards developments has been nonlinear and dependent on large development programs (Jacobson et al, 2013). The American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) committee F41 has been developing guides for AUV commu-nications, physical payload interfaces, sensor data formats, and autonomy and control.…”

Applicability of Current Remotely Operated Vehicle Standards and Guidelines to Autonomous Subsea IMR Operations

“…Research projects are experimenting with manipulator arms installed on AUVs to perform IMR operations and have been successful in their early trials [19,20]. DeepStar project is a joint industry project in Houston, which is currently working on standardizing AUV interfaces [21]. [22] highlights that hazards associated with use of autonomous systems vary depending on different environmental scenarios.…”