Tutorial proposal for Self-propelled underwater tracked vehicles for mining, pipe laying, inspection etc. their design and operation (half day)

Transcription

1 Tutorial proposal for Self-propelled underwater tracked vehicles for mining, pipe laying, inspection etc. their design and operation (half day) Dr. M. A. Atmanand, former Director, National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai, India 1. Topic Overview 1.1 Subject matter to be presented In order to utilize deep ocean resources and also to set up underwater seabed pipe lines and other infrastructures for oil and gas industries, it is necessary to have underwater vehicles which move on the seabed. While technical information on free swimming underwater vehicles like Remotely Operable Vehicles (ROV), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), gliders, etc. is easily available in published literature, information on seabed moving vehicles is limited. In view of the large potential in setting up of seabed infrastructures in the coming decades, it is necessary to have a good knowledge of design criteria for such systems. As the shear and bearing strength of the sea bed varies from rocky to soft soil with low bearing and shear strength, it is necessary to measure the sea bed property in-situ before taking up design or selection of a sea bed moving crawler. The details of the seabed property and their measurement in-situ would be covered in detail along with details of instrument for measuring the same. The various aspects of designing a tracked vehicle which can locomote, calculation of traction force required to overcome the various forces experienced like bulldozing resistance, machine drag resistance, gradient resistance etc. will be derived and the practical aspects covered. In order to keep the underwater weight appropriate to hold the vehicle in soft sea bed, it is necessary to have adequate buoyancy attached to the vehicle. Location of the centre of gravity and centre of buoyancy to have a stable locomotion is essential. The design of the mechanical toothed belt, structures, cable hooking etc. is also important. The locomotion of such vehicles is possible through hydraulic power generated on board the vehicle derived from hydraulic power packs which power the various hydraulic motors. Pressure compensation using oil, which helps in reducing overall weight underwater, especially for hydraulic systems and electrical systems which can take triaxial pressure, is an important component in underwater systems, which will be discussed. The basic vehicle will have standard appendages like robotic arms, gripper, collecting mechanism etc. for support during pipe laying, installation of infrastructure, seabed mining etc. as required. 1/7

2 The power requirement for the vehicle is of the order of hundreds of kilo Watts and is not advisable to have on board batteries due to their large size. Thus, power will have to be transmitted from the mother ship to the vehicle through suitable cable. The details of power transmission at higher voltages and system protection will be discussed. The outer armour of the cable will also double as the weight carrying member during launching and recovery of the system from mother ship. The vehicle needs to be instrumented with suit of sensors like camera, Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter, vehicle health monitoring system etc., which will be interfaced to an intelligent data acquisition and control (DAC) system. The vehicle operation is controlled from the ship by communicating with underwater DAC on the crawler. The communication will be through fiber optic links inside the electrical cable. The brief operational requirements on board the ship used for launching and recovery of the crawler like winches, launching mechanism etc. will also be covered. A brief on the selection of suitable vehicles for specific operation which enhances the knowledge of the user while procuring similar systems will be an added advantage. 1.2 Applicability Of The Material To Current Day Practice In The Respective Field Underwater cable laying, pipe laying, sea bed mining and setting up of instrumentation nodes for cable networks are quite common on the seabed in the present decade. Also, deep sea mining for polymetallic nodules, massive sulphides and cobalt crust are gaining importance since many countries and consortium have got their claims approved by International Seabed Authority, to take up technology development to mine these minerals. Day is not far when there will be commercial mining from seabed in an environmentally sustainable manner. All the above could be accomplished only by having tracked seabed vehicles. In view of this, technical knowledge of these vehicles is of utmost importance for even selection and operation. 2. Target Audience 2.1 The Intended Audience The intended audience will be those working in the oil and gas industries, practicing ocean technologists, research institute engineers and scientists working in the area of sea bed mining, offshore engineers, under graduate, post graduate and doctoral students working in ocean science and technology etc. 2/7

3 2.2 Base Line Level & Content of the Audiences Knowledge and Skills Personnel with knowledge of fundamental engineering concepts in civil or mechanical or electrical or oceanographers or scientists working in ocean science and technology in general could attend. Skilled technical personnel in the operations of ship board equipments used for launching and recovery, offshore and on shore technicians working in underwater pipe lines, subsea networks also will get benefitted. 2.3 Core Learning Objective 1. Design and operation of underwater seabed moving vehicle. 2. Gain knowledge to select appropriate vehicle for any applications in the field of work. 3. Operation of seabed moving vehicle, their launching and recovery from mother ship. 2.4 Anticipated Number of Participants Estimated to be between 15 to 20 numbers. 3. Content Detail (Attached as Annexure A) 4. Format 4.1 Manner of presentation. Presentation in class room with power point slides and some videos 4.2 Specify required classroom facilities. Projector with screen, lap top and pointer 4.3 Specify any audio visual presentation that will be required. Microphone with amplifier and speaker in case the audience is large. 4.4 Identify any additional requirements. Nil 4.5 Additional supporting materials. 5.1 Curriculum Vitae for all presenters. Attached as Annexure B 5.2 A short biographical sketch of each presenter suitable for publication in the conference program. Attached as Annexure C 5.3 A brief bibliography for the proposed presentation. Attached as Annexure D 3/7

4 Content Detail Annexure A Sl.No. Topic Time (in minutes) 1. Introduction Sea bed property, in-situ soil 30 property measurement 3. Mechanical design of tracked vehicle Hydraulic system Break Electrical system Instrumentation and control Ship board system Selection of appropriate vehicles 20 Total 210 4/7

5 Annexure B Curriculum Vitae of Dr. M. A. Atmanand Dr. M. A. Atmanand, Former Director of National Institute of Ocean Technology has done pioneering work in the area of deep sea technologies in India. An Instrumentation and Control Engineer by profession, he took his undergraduate degree from University of Calicut, Master s and doctorate degrees from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He led a team of Engineers for the design and development of underwater crawler for deep sea operation. He and his team developed the in-situ soil tester which was tested at a depth of 5200 m in the Central Indian Ocean Basin. It was under his supervision that the design of Electrical, Instrumentation and Control system of the India s first Remotely Operable Vehicle was done. This was later tested at a depth of 5289 m water depth. He has also guided various indigenization programmes for Ocean observation and under water systems. His areas of interest include : Development of underwater vehicles with specific reference to their control Development of components for deep sea applications Development of test protocols for testing of deep sea devices Project Management Some of the areas he contributed are : o Technologies for the extraction of Poly Metallic Nodules from deep sea, to retain pioneer investor status for India, granted by International Sea Bed Authority of United Nations o Development of Power and Control Systems for deep water Submersibles for depths up to 6000 meters. o Development of allied technologies for Underwater vehicles, which have become mainstay all such projects in India o Power Generation modules for wave Energy and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) o Development of underwater Systems and components like autonomous underwater profiling drifter, fibre optic connectors etc. o Establishment of electronic support facilities and tsunami early warning systems Dr.M.A.Atmanand has published more than 100 papers in International Journals, International conferences, Book chapters, National Conference and others. He received IEEE Oceanic Engineering presidential Award in 2016, National Geoscience award 2010 from Ministry of Mines and the International Society for Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE) Ocean Mining Symposium award in the year He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. He has widely travelled in capacities like technology transfer, as part of delegations etc. to countries like Russia, USA, Germany, Portugal, France, Italy, Korea, Japan etc. He received United Nations fellowship in He is the founder Chair of IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society in India. He has served IEEE Madras section in various capacities and he is the immediate past Chair. 5/7

6 Annexure C Short biographical sketch Dr. M. A. Atmanand, Former Director of National Institute of Ocean Technology has done pioneering work in the area of deep sea technologies in India. He led a team of Engineers for the design and development of underwater crawler for deep sea operation. He and his team developed the in-situ soil tester which was tested at a depth of 5200 m in the Central Indian Ocean Basin. It was under his supervision that the design of Electrical, Instrumentation and Control system of the India s first Remotely Operable Vehicle was done. This was later tested at a depth of 5289 m water depth. He has also guided various indigenization programmes for Ocean observation and under water systems. His areas of interest are in development of underwater vehicles, development of components for deep sea applications and development of test protocols for testing of deep sea devices. He has published more than 100 papers in International Journals, International conferences, Book chapters, National Conference and others. He received many awards including IEEE Oceanic Engineering presidential Award in He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. He is the founder Chair of IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society in India. 6/7

7 Annexure D Brief bibliography for the proposed presentation 1. Jin S. Chung Deep-ocean Mining Technology: Learning Curve I, Fifth ISOPE Ocean Mining Symposium, September, Tsukuba, Japan Publication Date2003, Publisher :International Society of Offshore and Polar EngineersSource. 2. Ramadass.G.A, Atmanand M. A Book Chapter Concepts of Deep-Sea Mining Technologies in book Deep-Sea Mining Resource Potential, Technical and Environmental Considerations edited by Rahul Sharma, pp , Springer 3. KV Reshma, K Amudha, C Janarthanan, NR Ramesh, K Gopakumar, GA Ramadass, MA Atmanand Experimental study on sinkage and breakout forces for soft soil Conference : Underwater Technology (UT), 2015 IEEE, pp 1-5, Publisher IEEE, S MuthukrishnaBabu, NR Ramesh, P Muthuvel, R Ramesh, CR Deepak, MA Atmanand, In-situ soil testing in the Central Indian Ocean basin at 5462-m water depth, International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering, Volume 24, Issue 03, pp , Publisher : International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers 5. R Handschuh, H Grebe, J Panthel, E Schulte, B Wenzlawski, W Schwarz, MA Atmanand, R Jeyamani, MA Shajahan, CR Deepak, M Ravindran Innovative deep ocean mining concept based on flexible riser and self-propelled mining machines, Fourth ISOPE Ocean Mining Symposium, September, 2001, Szczecin, Poland, Publication : International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers. 6. Klaus Herzog, Enno Schulte, MA Atmanand, Wilhelm Schwarz, Slip control system for a deepsea mining machine, IEEE transactions on automation science and engineering, Vol. 4, Issue : 2, pp CR Deepak, S Ramji, NR Ramesh, SM Babu, Raju Abraham, MA Shajahan, MA Atmanand, Development and testing of underwater mining systems for long term operations using flexible riser concept, Seventh ISOPE Ocean Mining Symposium, Seventh ISOPE Ocean Mining Symposium, 1-6 July, 2007, Lisbon, Portugal, Publication : International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers. 8. Inoue, Tomoya; Katsui, Tokihiro; Murakami, Hisataka; Takagi, Ken, : Crawler System for Deep Sea ROVs Marine Technology Society Journal, Volume 43, Number 5, Winter 2009, pp (8), Publisher: Marine Technology Society 9. AutunPurser, LaurenzThomsena, ChrisBarnes, MairiBestb, RossChapman, MichaelHofbauer, MaikMenzel, HannesWagner, Temporal and spatial benthic data collection via an internet operated Deep Sea Crawler, Methods in Oceanography, Volume 5, April 2013, Pages /7