Advanced control methods for underwater geotechnical surveys automation
- Autores: Aldo Gerardo Arriaga Orta
- Directores de la Tesis: Marcos Arroyo Álvarez de Toledo (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2017
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: José Julián Rodellar Benedé (presid.), Sara Lafuerza Bielsa (secret.), Ignacio Álvarez García (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería del Terreno por la Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya
- Materias:
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- Resumen
The exploitation of marine energy and mining resources often requires deployment of fixed or semi-supported facilities anchored to the seabed. Geotechnical design of such structures requires specific information about the nature and properties of soils and rocks present there. As it is the case in onshore projects, to accurately assess the stiffness and strength ¿in situ¿ soil samples are needed to present as less alterations as possible. Sample retrieval on land can itself be a rather difficult task and it is even more troublesome in offshore environments.
Submarine geotechnical exploration is experiencing a paradigm shift due to the application of robotics and automation to (until now) traditional drilling procedures. The MD500 is an underwater subsea geotechnical drilling and in situ testing device developed with the goal of retrieving high-quality physical samples of the seabed at study depths of up to 150 m and with a nominal water depth of 500 m. The system applications range in areas of marine activity, such as: port infrastructure, nearshore and offshore, renewable energy projects at sea, oil & gas, mining, etc.
The machine consists of a set of remotely operated devices that must synchronize with each other: drilling rig, stabilizing legs and three tool manipulators, namely two Cartesian robots and one anthropomorphic robot arm. The automation and remote operation of such devices implies that all the tasks usually performed by a drilling crew must be carried out by machinery or robots and thus the latter must be versatile enough to face the variety of unpredictable issues. This dissertation presents a f the system analysis, advanced control loops design and implementation, performance assessment and the distributed control network architecture of the MD500.
