Center for Offshore Mechatronics

In the Centre for Offshore Mechatronics, five academic and eight industrial partners work together to build knowledge supporting robust and cost-effective operations offshore. Academic partners: University of Agder, NORCE Research, NTNU, Aalborg University, RWTH Achen. Industrial Partners: HMH/MHWirth, NOV, MacGregor, Cameron, Bosch Rexroth, AkerBP/Lundin, Skeie Gruppen, Stepchange and GCE Node. The work is organized into seven work packages that address important challenges for the offshore industries such as; Reliable and energy-efficient drives (WP1: Drives) Operation in deep water and under demanding wave and wind conditions (WP2: Motion Compensation) Cost-effective and safe autonomous operations (WP3: Robotics and Autonomy) Multi-physics and co-simulation (WP4: Modeling and Simulation) Life-time estimation and decision support (WP5: Monitoring Techniques) Optimization of operations and early warning (WP6: Data Analytics, IT integration and Big Data) New business models, service innovation and digital transformation (WP7: Technology Vision) The centre conducts research on the fundamental challenges and thus, the results are relevant within a wide range of operations and industries offshore. In total 32 PhD and 8 Post.Doc projects will be completed by the end of the project. The PhD and PostDoc positions are associated with work-packages aiming to solve the future challenges in offshore mechatronics. The industrial partners in the centre are global equipment suppliers, and at the start of the project their main market was oil&gas offshore operations. These partners have extensive experience and knowledge of what is required to succeed with systems and solutions in demanding operations offshore. The combination of research to solve the fundamental problems together with the vast experience base from offshore operations provides a very good basis for implementing results and innovation. In addition, there is great potential for technology and knowledge transfer towards new offshore industries such as renewable energy production, aquaculture, m,ineral mining, etc. Several of the partners are already active in offshore wind energy area. Knowledge transfer to the industry partners and implementation of research is expected at this stage of the project, and we have some good examples emerging. Some projects are also continued in spin-off projects to mature the technology readiness level aiming at technology transfer and commercialization. The supplier industry in the centre has introduced new products for installation, operation and maintance to the offshore sectors.

SFI Offshore Mechatronics was the first major project that brought together the supplier industry within and around GCE NODE in Agder for a joint large visionary research, development, and innovation programme (RDI) in collaboration with the leading professional communities related to their business areas. The ambition was to improve integration and cooperation between research partners and companies with relevant topics and results that user partners should be able to commercialise. The centre organise the R&D activities on a relatively basic technology readiness level because many of the user partners are in competition with each other and did not want to open for business-critical tasks. From the R&D results, companies could then draw a basis for their innovation and development projects and activities. Along the way, industry partners have also been able to recruit good candidates who were related to the activities in the centre and its environment. Research based competence has been built by a high number of PhD fellows, 21 has defended their thesis and 11 will are expected to finish within 2024. 7 postdocs have also contributed. We have seen more than 200 publications until know with more the 20% on highest level. Research has comprised modelling and simulation of complex systems, control of motion and heave compensation, drives, robotics, autonomy, condition monitoring for remaining useful life and maintenance, machine learning and AI, data analytics and big data. Important results have been obtained: - Novel motion compensation control algorithms for antisway and ship-to-ship cargo handling. - Modelling and co-simulation of ship movements and motion-compensated cranes. - Three-dimensional machine vision with LIDAR scanning (patented). - Precision control and damping of long-armed robots and cranes. - Prediction of failure events in complex production with “hidden information”. - Control models for digital hydraulics. - Acoustic methods for fault detection in hydraulic systems. - Condition monitoring, fault detection and remaining life estimation from machine learning of fibre ropes with optical-thermal monitoring, steel ropes, large slow-moving rotating bearings, gear systems, and hydraulic cylinders with acoustic emision monitoring. - Detection of initiation of fatigue and life time of welds with multiaxial loading. The user partners have developed their skills to absorb research results to develop new products and processes for more efficient, reliable, and safe operations in harsh environment offshore. The aim was to develop autonomous solutions for oil and gas drilling and production. The results have found their way into other areas too: Autonomous vessels, offshore wind, hydropower, railways, etc. The results may be used towards any renewable energy, assembly of large-scale marine structures, ports, seabed mineral mining, aquaculture, construction, process industry, and defence. The centre will continue.

Norway has succeeded in developing a competitive petroleum-related supply industry. Export from the supply industry in Norway has increased from 40 billion NOK in 2004 to over 180 billion NOK in 2012. Now, the industry faces new challenges like greater depths, the rough climate in the Arctic, environmental problems, the need for cost reduction and competition from emerging economies. The industry therefore needs to focus on systematic and disruptive innovations, and to take part in strategic research with a long-term perspective to go beyond incremental developments. The Center will unite companies, academic institutions and two research & industry cluster groups. These partners have united to focus on long-term research in several fields, with the goals of reducing reliance on trial and error, researching new tools and methods, and providing the innovations needed for the next generation of advanced robotic control applicable to offshore drilling operations for oil and gas. The proposed research program has been put together following discussions between the partners to clarify the R&D needs relevant to their medium to long term business plans, their national and international strategic planning (linked to local needs and global market opportunities), and the priorities of their (collectively determined) technology roadmap, with potential both within the target sector, and beyond. The industrial partners are: MH Wirth AS, Cameron Sense AS, National Oilwell Varco AS, Skeie Technology AS, Lundin Norway AS, Devoteam AS, MacGregor Norway AS, ABB AS, StepChange; Klüber Lubrication and Applica AS. The academic/research partners are: UiA (Grimstad/Kristiansand), Teknova (Kristiansand), NTNU (Trondheim), IRIS (Stavanger), AAUC (Aalesund), RWTH (Germany) and AAU (Denmark). There will also be collaboration with University of Texas at Austin, KTH(Sweden) and DTU(Denmark). The industry groups are GCE NODE and GCE Maritime.