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Intelligent robots are cleaning up underwater structures
Jessica Guttridge
Autonomous drones making underwater maintenance more efficient and safe
Researchers from the University of Technology have developed autonomous maintenance robots for underwater structures such as bridge piers and underwater pipes.
The robots are developed to clean and inspect submerged structures for damage to help protect their longevity. They have been tested around many beaches around Sydney.
Project head, Robotics Professor Dikai Liu, discussed the objectives of the research with Innovation Intelligence.
“The main focus of this research is to solve or improve the occupational health and safety (OH&S) of bridge or underwater structure maintenance workers. Underwater environments are very challenging and hazardous for divers to clean and maintain the underwater structures.
“Traditionally there was a need for divers to go underwater to do the cleaning with high pressure water. With the robot, the divers would instead be in the boat on the monitor to assist the robot or provide high pressure water.
“People are still needed in the deployment of this robot, but they have much better working conditions.”
Professor Dikai Liu is also the Co-Director of the Centre for Autonomous Systems (CAS) at UTS and has won an UTS Medal for Research Impact this year for his research on infrastructure robotics.
The robot can be operated in three control modes:
- Completely autonomous, where the robot can do everything by itself
- Supervised autonomy, where the human operator provides high level commands for example moving towards a pier
- Remote control, where the robot is controlled by a remote Professor Liu said there were three clear challenges they had to address in the research: full automation, predicting shallow water currents, and stability on bridges.
“If you want a robot to do the cleaning to remove the marine growth. The robot needs to recognise the types of marine growths on a pier, specify them, work out an approach to clean the pier and remove them, all while not damaging the surface of the bridge piers.
“The robot also should have some intelligence to operate in shallow water, which present different challenges to deep water environments, particularly along coastal areas. The water’s current and flow are very difficult to predict,” Professor Liu said.
At the same, the robot couldn’t remain stationery as it needed to interact with the environment.
“The lack of visibility, and the water current can make the robot difficult to operate and for sensors to sense the environment.”
The research team has been in talks with other companies to employ the intelligent robots in other applications, such as piers of wharfs in ports.
“Many wharf piers are covered in marine growths and we don’t know the conditions in terms of whether it’s broken, or what’s the diameter. We need to remove the barnacles before it’s too late, for inspection and maintenance.”
Professor Liu says the technology may one day be used to clean underwater gas pipes, or the bottom of ship hulls.
Professor Dikai Liu is also working on maintenance robots that clean, inspect and paint the curved structure of Sydney Harbour Bridge, as well as intelligent robots that assist abrasive blasting labourers to make working conditions safer.
The research was funded by the Australian British Council and NRMA Maritime NSW.
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The short-term nature of Government (3 to 4-year terms), the short-term horizon of the business system (driven by shareholder value), the media culture (infotainment and ‘gotcha’ games), the general Australian population’s cynical perspective and a preoccupation with a lifestyle all create a malaise of strategic thinking and conversation. Ultimately, it leads to a leadership vacuum at all levels. 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