Eelume

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The Eelume is an autonomous underwater vehicle being developed by Eelume AS, in partnership with Kongsberg Maritime and Equinor. [1] [2]

Contents

Function

The Eelume is primarily designed to inspect, maintain and repair subsea infrastructure, primarily for offshore drilling installations. [2] [3] It may also have military applications, including for mine countermeasures and undersea surveillance. [2]

The Eelume is intended to be able to dive 500 meters beneath the surface. [4]

The Eelume is designed to be either entirely autonomous, or capable of being controlled remotely by an operator. [5] The Eelume is intended to be deployed permanently underwater, housed at subsea docking stations. [6]

Development

The Eelume was tested at the PREZIOSO Linjebygg Subsea Test Center near Trondheim in November and December 2016. [4] Eelume CEO Arne Kjørsvik has said they anticipate the vehicle being available on the market in late 2019. [4]

The company designing Eelume began in 2015 as a spinoff from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), [4] founded by a team of entrepreneurs including NTNU professor Kristin Ytterstad Pettersen. [7]

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Kongsberg Gruppen Norwegian industrial company

Kongsberg Gruppen is an international technology group that supplies high-technology systems and solutions to customers in the merchant marine, defence, aerospace, offshore oil and gas industries, and renewable and utilities industries.

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A remotely operated underwater vehicle is a tethered underwater mobile device.

Autonomous underwater vehicle Unmanned underwater vehicle with autonomous guidance system

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Underwater glider Type of autonomous underwater vehicle that uses small changes in its buoyancy to move up and down and uses wings to convert the vertical motion to horizontal, propelling itself forward with very low power consumption

An underwater glider is a type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that employs variable-buoyancy propulsion instead of traditional propellers or thrusters. It employs variable buoyancy in a similar way to a profiling float, but unlike a float, which can move only up and down, an underwater glider is fitted with hydrofoils that allow it to glide forward while descending through the water. At a certain depth, the glider switches to positive buoyancy to climb back up and forward, and the cycle is then repeated.

Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), sometimes known as underwater drones, are any submersible vehicles that are able to operate underwater without a human occupant. These vehicles are robotic, and may be divided into the two categories of remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROUVs), which are remotely controlled by a human operator; and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), which are highly automated and operate independently of direct human input. Sometimes only vehicles in the second category are considered a kind of autonomous robot, but those in the first category are also robots though requiring a remote operator, similar to surgical robots.

Kongsberg Maritime

Kongsberg Maritime (KM) is a Norwegian technology enterprise within the Kongsberg Gruppen (KOG). Kongsberg Maritime deliver systems for positioning, surveying, navigation, and automation to merchant vessels and offshore installations. Their most well known products exist within dynamic positioning systems, marine automation and surveillance systems, process automation, satellite navigation, and hydroacoustics.

Subsea is fully submerged ocean equipment, operations or applications, especially when some distance offshore, in deep ocean waters, or on the seabed. The term 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.

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Kristin Ytterstad Pettersen

Kristin Ytterstad Pettersen is a Norwegian engineer whose research involves nonlinear control theory and its application to controlling the motion of both watercraft and snakebots. She is a professor of engineering cybernetics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and the founder of Eelume AS.

The Orca is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that is under development by Boeing and Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) for the United States Navy.

References

  1. Brokaw, Alex (April 21, 2016). "This terrifying eel-robot will perform maintenance on undersea equipment". The Verge.
  2. 1 2 3 Carl, David (February 24, 2018). "Kongsberg to test Eelume unmanned subsea residency vehicle". Jane's Information Group.
  3. Thomas, Nathalie (April 18, 2017). "North Sea producers turn to robots to cut costs". Financial Times. Statoil is working with Eelume, a Norwegian underwater robotics company, on developing a snakelike swimming robot that can both inspect and carry out easy repairs on subsea infrastructure such as pipes.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Addison, Velda (March 29, 2017). "Eelume Aims To Go Deeper With Robotic Subsea Snake". Hart Energy.
  5. Liljebäck, Pål; Mills, Ricard. "Eelume: A Flexible and Subsea Resident IMR vehicle". Kongsberg Maritime.
  6. Atherton, Kelsey D. (February 17, 2017). "Watch a snake robot wriggle through a Norwegian fjord". Popular Science. Once outfitted, the robots can settle into their watery home: Eelume AS designed them to stay underwater permanently, in a little docking station on the bottom of the sea. From there, they can swim out to inspect and repair undersea infrastructure, like pipelines or oil rigs, without any concern about the weather above the ocean's surface.
  7. Nilsen, Kjersti Lunden (20 December 2019). "Subsea "Snake Robot" Inventor Wins Prestigious Cybernetics Prize". Maritime Executive.