Evaluation of the Potential Impact of Ground Robots on FPSO Operations

Abstract

AbstractThe objective of this paper is to present Petrobras’ learnings when evaluating the routine of a FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) asset crew to identify scenarios for the application of robotics in day-to-day offshore activities. The method used for the studies presented in this paper consists of surveying archived data recordings in objective metric criteria, to evaluate the leverage of robotic assistance.A larger perspective analysis to one pre-salt typical FPSO reveals three main groups of key activities in terms of people on board: operator inspection/surveillance rounds, work at height, especially when scaffolding is required, and painting campaigns (surface preparation and application of the coating). Each of these three activity groups (operator round, work at height, painting) opened a set of robotics initiatives within Petrobras. For this paper, we delved into the analysis of recurrent operational tasks performed during a year of operations for five pre-salt FPSOs and which could be impacted and benefited by the application of ground robots.In order to illustrate the potential of the applications presented here in terms of values, the first attempt of analysis was carried out through the SAP™ input logs for one of these five FPSOs. The logs have shown checklists performed by the operators over a year, comprising 6,663 pieces of equipment, 16,148 checklist items, 497 different types of tasks, and 18,305 equivalent man-hours/year. This is equivalent to 5 seats on board, which can increase to 10 to 15 people, depending on the work shift adopted. It is worth mentioning that this number refers to one FPSO only and was just a preliminary analysis, from which the inspiration for more detailed studies was extracted, since the Company currently manages a fleet of 42 FPSOs. These numbers reveal a glimpse of the addressable market size of ground robots for routine offshore verification tasks.However, while consistency of inspection and uninterrupted availability are a premium associated with the use of robots, a qualitative analysis with continuous updates must be performed to confirm the feasibility of robotization given current and future capabilities of the robot. An initial analysis suggests that 30% to 50% of the theoretical equivalent hours per year could be freed up.