 | |
| Company type | GmbH |
|---|---|
| Industry | Robotics |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founder | Lukas Silberbauer, Matthias Biegl |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Global |
Number of employees | ~50 (2024) |
| Website | taurob |
Taurob is an Austrian robotics company best known for its Taurob Tracker and Taurob Inspector robots and for winning Total Energies' ARGOS Challenge (together with TU Darmstadt) in 2017. [1]
Founded in 2010 by Lukas Silberbauer and Matthias Biegl [2] with the aim of developing robots for fire fighters the company has since expanded to other domains such as police, civil-defence, military and the oil and gas industry. [3] [4]
In 2012 Taurob introduced the world's first ATEX certified robot with the Taurob Tracker.
Forming a collaborative team named ARGONAUTS with TU Darmstadt, Taurob participated in Total Energies' ARGOS (Autonomous Robots for Oil and Gas Sites) challenge between 2014 and 2017. The ARGONAUTS team was ultimately victorious, making the final shortlist of 5 teams out of 31 international entries. This victory resulted in the robot being chosen to start operating on Total Energies industrial sites by 2020.
Between 2018 and 2020 Taurob was part of the OGRIP (Offshore Ground Robotics Industrial Pilot) project, funded by Total Energies and the Oil and Gas Technology Center (OGTC) [5] which formed the foundation of the Taurob Inspector robot - a refinement and development of the platform that won the ARGOS challenge and the existing Taurob Tracker robot.
In August 2020 the Taurob Inspector performed the world's first offshore deployment of an ATEX certified robot with its week-long mission on a platform in Total Energies' K5 gas field 110km off the coast of the Netherlands. The mission focused on robotically surveying the platform for corrosion and on teleoperation from an on-shore control room.
Two Taurob Inspectors were handed over to TOTAL in November 2020 for a year-long deployment at the Shetland Gas Plant. The robots will be focused on conducting autonomous inspection rounds of an MEG (gas dehydration) unit, with tasks such as valve reading, corrosion identification and frequency monitoring of valves and other components.
The company is currently designing the first OWCR (Offshore Work Class Robot) with a heavy duty arm as part of a joint industry project with Total Energies, Equinor and SAFT. This robot will be ATEX and IECEx certified and allow a much higher degree of modularity. The first trials were performed in Q3 2023 in Lacq, France.
An oil platform is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform linked by bridge to the production platform. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or float. In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. These sub-sea facilities may include one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells.
A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) or remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is a free-swimming submersible craft used to perform underwater observation, inspection and physical tasks such as valve operations, hydraulic functions and other general tasks within the subsea oil and gas industry, military, scientific and other applications. ROVs can also carry tooling packages for undertaking specific tasks such as pull-in and connection of flexible flowlines and umbilicals, and component replacement.
Piper Alpha was an oil platform located in the North Sea about 120 miles (190 km) north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in December 1976, initially as an oil-only platform, but later converted to add gas production.
TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and is one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. TotalEnergies is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.
The Technische Universität Darmstadt, commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1877 and received the right to award doctorates in 1899. In 1882, it was the first university in the world to set up a chair in electrical engineering. In 1883, the university founded the first faculty of electrical engineering and introduced the world's first degree course in electrical engineering. In 2004, it became the first German university to be declared as an autonomous university. TU Darmstadt has assumed a pioneering role in Germany. Computer science, electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, business informatics, political science and many more courses were introduced as scientific disciplines in Germany by Darmstadt faculty.
A gas flare, alternatively known as a flare stack, flare boom, ground flare, or flare pit, is a gas combustion device used in places such as petroleum refineries, chemical plants and natural gas processing plants, oil or gas extraction sites having oil wells, gas wells, offshore oil and gas rigs and landfills.
Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circles as "ocean engineering". After completing this degree one can join a ship as an officer in engine department, eventually rising to the rank of a chief engineer.This rank is one of the top ranks onboard and is equal to the rank of a ship's captain. Marine engineering is the highly preferred course to join merchant Navy as an officer as it provides ample opportunities in terms of both onboard and onshore jobs.
Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the term is used to describe drilling activities on the continental shelf, though the term can also be applied to drilling in lakes, inshore waters and inland seas.
Subsea technology involves fully submerged ocean equipment, operations, or applications, especially when some distance offshore, in deep ocean waters, or on the seabed. The term subsea is frequently used in connection with oceanography, marine or ocean engineering, ocean exploration, remotely operated vehicle (ROVs) autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), submarine communications or power cables, seafloor mineral mining, oil and gas, and offshore wind power.
The Bouri Offshore Field is part of Block NC-41, which is located 120 kilometers (75 mi) north of the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea. It was first discovered in 1976 at a depth of 8,700 feet (2,700 m) and is estimated to contain 4.5 billion barrels (720,000,000 m3) in proven recoverable crude oil reserves and 3.5 trillion cubic feet (99 km3) of associated natural gas with an annual production potential of 6 billion m³. Bouri is considered the largest producing oilfield in the Mediterranean.
Vietnam is a dynamic developing economy with a relatively high growth rate. The energy sector plays a key role in promoting the country's socio-economic development. Vietnam has a diverse energy fuel resource of various types such as coal, natural gas, petroleum, hydropower and renewables such as solar and wind energy. The country has recently been successful in renewable energy deployment, especially solar and wind power development. Coal has been the key power generation source since 2018. Coal accounted for about 30% of installed capacity and 47% of electricity generation in 2021 The high use of coal makes Vietnam an increasingly important emitter of carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change.
In the petroleum industry, Integrated operations (IO) refers to the integration of people, disciplines, organizations, work processes and information and communication technology to make smarter decisions. In short, IO is collaboration with focus on production.
Al Başrah Oil Terminal, commonly referred to as ABOT, is a strategically critical Iraqi offshore, deep sea crude oil marine loading terminal that lies approximately 50 km (31 mi) southeast of the Al-Faw Peninsula in the Persian Gulf. Along with its sister terminal, the Khawr al ‘Amīyah Oil Terminal, the terminals provide the principal point of export for more than eighty percent of Iraq's gross domestic product as of 2009, and all of the oil from the southern Başrah refinery.
GE Oil & Gas was the division of General Electric that owned its investments in the petroleum industry. In July 2017, this division was merged with Baker Hughes.
Taurob tracker is a mobile robot, manufactured by Taurob GmbH in Austria. It has been originally developed as a remote controlled reconnaissance platform for fire departments. but is currently used also by the military, civil-defense units, universities and the oil and gas industry around the world.
The ARGOS Challenge was a robotic competition sponsored by Total between 2013 and 2017 and co-organized with Agence nationale de la recherche. The acronym ARGOS stands for Autonomous Robot for Gas and Oil Sites.
The Department of Computer Science is a department of the Technische Universität Darmstadt. With a total of 36 professorships and about 3,700 students in 12 study courses, the Department of Computer Science is the largest department of the university. The department shapes the two research profile areas "Cybersecurity (CYSEC)" and "Internet and Digitization (InDi)" of the university.
Oskar von Stryk is professor of simulation, system optimization and robotics at the department of computer science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt. He is known for his research on robotics.
Taurob Inspector is an ATEX certified mobile robot, developed and manufactured by the Austrian company Taurob GmbH. The Inspector was developed from the Taurob Tracker as part of the OGRIP project.