MINOAS - Marine INspection rObotic Assistant System
Overview
Background & policy context:
The increasing competitiveness in marine operations creates a need for new system concepts that introduce high technology value added products, facilitate the processes involved and minimise the downtimes. The need, thus, lies not only in incorporating the technological means so far available, but in changing the way the corresponding authorities stand against the challenges at hand.
Objectives:
The objective of MINOAS was re-engineering of the overall vessel-inspection methodology, by introducing an innovative system concept that incorporates state of the art technologies, but at the same time formulating a new standardisation of the overall inspection process.
MINOAS set out to create the development of a new infrastructure that substitutes human personnel by high locomotion enabled robots. It 'teleported' the human inspector from the vessel's hold to a control room with virtual reality properties.
Methodology:
The human's perceptual abilities are enhanced through the utilisation of high-resolution tools (e.g. sensors) and are augmented through the parallel processing property provided by MINOAS. Following the centralised control scheme adopted in similar distributed control methodologies (SCADA), the number and the sequence of the tasks required is rearranged and the overall inspection procedure is brought in alignment with the current tendency adopted in similar inspection, exploration and surveillance tasks.
MINOAS is a new system concept that aims to formulate an integrated product that will be straightforwardly applied to the inspection related procedures of the maritime industry. This system concept does not only lie in the implementation of existing technology to a new application field, but in creating a new environment for the human personnel related to these tasks. The data acquisition tasks (DAQ) will be automated, through the incorporation of a semi-autonomously operating robot fleet. This withdraws human personnel from the hazardous environment of a vessel under inspection and avoids the need for temporary staging in large compartments.
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