Robot in snake’s shape undertakes the fixing of pipelines on the seabed.
The oil and gas industry relies on colossal infrastructure, which means analogous maintenance costs. Pumping mechanisms, wells as well as thousands of kilometers of pipes must, in addition to their installation, be inspected at regular intervals and repaired if necessary. Underwater robots have already begun to be developed, embracing edge technology. The goal is to offer solutions that will make all the above processes safer, more economical, and less contaminating.
Among these approaches is Eelume, a six-meter-long robot in the shape of a snake. The robot is equipped with a camera at both ends. It has the ability to remain in a refueling station immersed in depths that reach 500 meters, for up to six months, without having to return to the surface. The self-propelled robot can cover distances of up to 20 kilometers before having to return to its station for recharging. It can also be equipped with different gears, depending on the mission to be completed: for example, it can bear tools to handle submarine valves as well as special brushes to remove sediments and marine organisms that accumulate on the immersed equipment.
Unmanned vessels have already undertaken the maintenance of many submarine oil wells and pipelines at great depths. However, these vessels usually have to be transported to the location where they have to operate by fully manned vessels, and then the control is taken over by operators on the surface vessel. The cost of this procedure can be as high as $ 100,000 a day, according to Pål Liljebäck, an executive at Eelume Subsea Intervention, which developed the robot.
The company is based in Trondheim, Norway, and originated through the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Liljebäck typically states that “by allowing the robot to remain [for a long time] in a submarine station, it can be activated at any time to proceed with inspections or interventions, thus reducing the need to resort to costly surface vessels.”
Eelume has the ability to operate independently, undertaking missions assigned to it by a remote control center, to which the robot sends images and data. Its snake-like design allows it to operate in confined spaces as well as to twist its body in order to maintain its position in the face of strong underwater currents. Also, the fact that it remains in a submarine station makes it possible to activate it regardless of the weather conditions prevailing on the surface of the ocean and would possibly make it difficult to transport a conventional unmanned vessel by ship to that point.
The global market for underwater robotic solutions is expected to reach about $ 7 billion by 2025, according to analysts, and other companies have already begun the process of commercializing innovative proposals in the field of autonomous vessels capable of operating at great depths, and robotic technology allows their construction and use.
The oil and gas industries have a significant impact on climate change, while underwater exploration for potential deposits can damage the marine environment. Pål Atle Solheimsnes, lead engineer with Equinor, however, believes that Eelume is accompanied not only by economic but also environmental benefits. “Diesel-powered surface boats emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide, but robots, like the Eelume, have almost zero emissions.”
The Eelume Subsea Intervention, in collaboration with Equinor, will carry out the final stage of bottom tests later this year at the Asgard oil and gas field off the west coast of Norway. Eelume estimates that it will put into operation its first robots in 2022 and that it will have up to 50 of them scattered in the oceans of our planet by 2027.
Sources:
https://interestingengineering.com/snake-robot-fixes-pipelines-on-the-ocean-floor
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/20/tech/eelume-undersea-snake-robot-spc-intl/index.html
Live robots: The advanced Xenobot 2.0
A new generation of living Xenobot robots has been created by scientists in the USA. These are tiny life forms that self-assemble a body of simple frog cells, do not need muscles to move, and have memory capacity. These “collectives” of cells have the ability to work together in swarms and in the future will undertake various tasks such as, e.g., the cleaning of microplastics or other pollutants and rubbish from land and sea. 
Last year, a team of biologists and computer experts from Tufts and Vermont universities created the first Xenobot 1.0, tiny biological machines made from frog cells that were able to move, push a load, and exhibit group behavior in flocks with other similar robots. This year, the new Xenobots 2.0 are improved, as they move faster, are able to navigate in different environments, and can repair themselves if they show any damage.
Researchers, led by Tufts Professor of Biology Michael Levin, who published the report in the journal “Science Robotics”, believe that this technology has a tremendous future, and that is why the two collaborating American universities have just created the new Institute for Computationally Designed Organisms (ICDO) to create even more sophisticated live robots.
Xenobots get their name from the frog species Xenopus laevis, from whose embryos the researchers derived their cells. The new generation 2.0 robots live three to seven days longer than the previous generation 1.0, which lasted up to seven days. Their shape is spherical, and their size reaches half a millimeter at present, while their body is completely biodegradable when they “die”.
Previous attempts to create live robots have focused on wireless control of animals (e.g., cockroaches), but this concept raises bioethical issues. Xenobots differ because they are self-generating forms only coming from cells, have no neurons, and cannot be considered animals.
But what exactly are they? Living organisms or robots? There is no clear answer to this. Rather, something in between.
Sources:
https://www.healthweb.gr/perissotera/texnologia/zontana-rompot-ta-ekseligmena-xenobot-2-0
https://now.tufts.edu/news-releases/scientists-create-next-generation-living-robots
Supermodels robots in a fashion show
A new era for the fashion industry was inaugurated after the collaboration of Dolce&Gabbana and Genoa’s IIT (Italian Institute of Technology). For the first time, artificial intelligence robots participated in a fashion show. The researchers from IIT “lent” the designers three iCubs (a humanoid robot built by the IIT, 104 cm tall and weighing 22 kg) and another android with artificial intelligence. The robots, side by side to real-life models, took the catwalk to present the Dolce&Gabbana clothes collection. It was an amazing and unique fashion show, where robots and humans walked alongside. The result was a real mix of creativity and innovation that came after the collaboration of the fashion industry with the tech sector.
The fashion designers Stefano Dolce and Domenica Gabbana explained how this idea came to them. “We all wonder what this pandemic has taught us. Maybe it’s too early to understand. We can say what we did. Not being able to travel or meet people and clients, we saw the world through social networks and thought of the next chapter for our fashion. Given the digital hangover of these months, it could only be a chapter steeped in technology. We love it, and we use it, but we are not experts, so we contacted the IIT in Genoa. Research, especially medical research, projects us into the future and moves the boundaries of our knowledge a little further. We are convinced that fashion must and can read the world, always creating clothes and accessories that are beautiful to look at and as pleasant to wear as possible. That’s why it was extremely useful and fun too”.
Source: https://www.thepatent.news/2021/03/09/fashion-robots-now-on-the-catwalk/
Robotic exoskeleton legs bearing AI technology
Researchers of the University of Waterloo, Canada, have designed and developed exoskeleton legs having the property of thinking and making control decisions on their own. Such a concept comes into reality by utilizing wearable cameras and applying artificial intelligence technology.
In general, exoskeletons are wearable robots designed to enhance the user’s strength and endurance. In the first place, they received attention in military-focused research, but now they are gaining more attention in the health industry and rehabilitation for those having disabilities. The goal of exoskeleton suits for the disabled is to help people regain their full mobility. In addition to enhancing physical movements, such robotic bodysuits are empowering to the user, restoring dignity and freedom to those who suffer from mobility problems.
Nevertheless, most existing exoskeleton legs must be manually converted to different modes for more complicated tasks, such as stepping over or around obstacles. In the direction of confronting this restriction, the researchers placed onboard cameras and AI-based software to precisely identify stairs, doors, and other features of the surrounding environment.
The next step of the project, ExoNet, aims to send instructions to motors so that robotic exoskeletons can climb stairs, avoid obstacles or take other appropriate actions based on analysis of the user’s current movement and the upcoming terrain. Brokoslaw Laschowski, a Ph.D. candidate that is the leader of the project, stated: “Our control approach wouldn’t necessarily require human thought. Similar to autonomous cars that drive themselves, we’re designing autonomous exoskeletons that walk for themselves.”
Sources:
https://www.inceptivemind.com/self-walking-exoskeleton-legs-combine-ai-wearable-cameras/18137/
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=9351558
Athens for Industry 4.0, Summit 2021
Professor Chrysostomos Stylios of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Ioannina, participated in the proceedings of the 1st Annual Conference ‘Athens for Industry 4.0, Summit 2021‘, which was held online on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 March 2021. Specifically, his speech was a part of the thematic unit entitled ‘Presentation of good practices of digital transformation in an industrial environment. Solutions and Applications‘ (Part B). The topic of his presentation was ‘Mechatronics as an emerging technology of the 4th Industrial Revolution’.
Professor Stylios clearly developed the extremely interesting issue of the transition to the 4th Industrial Revolution in the light of the technologies that compose and characterize it, giving special emphasis to the role of Mechatronics in the direction of completion and strengthening of this transition. His presentation highlighted the contribution of the European transnational project named NEW METRO, in which he participates, towards the modernization and updating of vocational training curricula for the training of the Mechatronics Technician, in order to bridge the skills gap, especially concerning the Key Enabling Technologies (KETs).
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