Asimov's ghost! Oil and gas rigs could be taken over by robots

The European Space Agency has announced that a robot, building upon its ExoMars Rover, is bidding to win a place on oil and gas production rigs around the world, to work in remote and hazardous environments.

Oil and gas giant Total's Autonomous Robot for Gas and Oil Sites (Argos) Challenge is a three-year competition to encourage the development of robots to work on hydrocarbon production sites in extreme conditions where feeble humans may be unable to function.

The robot, developed by a consortium calling itself Foxiris and led by GMV, a privately owned technological business group, will aim to run in the competition alongside four other teams.

Total hopes its competition will spark a revolution in the development of autonomous robots which presumably will cut those expensive oil rigger wages by performing routine, repetitive tasks such as inspections, as well as detecting anomalies, alerting operators, and intervening in emergencies.

"We want the robot to be able to move anywhere on a production facility that a human can go today," explained Kris Kydd, Total's Argos project manager."

"Then, using artificial intelligence, we want the robots to be able to read and record the values on the instrumentation, and to know autonomously whether they are normal or not. If there is an abnormal situation, the robot has to alert the remote operator," he added.

The competing tincandroids must pass three sets of gruelling tests at a plant in Lacq, France, the first of which has already taken place. The gas dehydration unit in Lacq was chosen before other locations apparently because it "features stairs, narrow walkways and obstacles typical of those found in production plants" which the robots must learn to navigate for their heartless human overlords.

The Argos jury commented that "Foxiris distinguished itself by its exceptional endurance", after the first weekday intensive of round "challenging tests".

ESA explains that "Foxiris carries internal navigation sensors and scientific instruments including cameras, thermal imagers, gas sensors and microphones. These allow it to inspect and monitor pressure dials, valves and level gauges, detect hot surfaces, sound alarms and localise gas leaks." ®