Next Generation Subsea Inspection, Maintenance and Repair Operations

This paper presents the latest developments in the project Next Generation Subsea Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR). Subsea IMR operations are frequently carried out in the offshore oil and gas business. Increased efficiency in such operations will reduce time of operations and costs. Autonomous functionalities constitute an enabler for such reduction. To this end, the project is focusing on technologies, algorithms and methods required for enabling the right level of autonomy and human-machine interaction in IMR operations. This includes new perception, localization, path-planning, and shared control technologies, as well as new methods for risk management. Although NextGenIMR has a particular focus on subsea operations in the oil and gas industry, the technologies developed will also be highly relevant for IMR operations in fish farms and in deep sea mining.