Revolutionising Offshore Energy

Pushing forward in robotics and artificial intelligence, we produce an innovative pipeline from academic research to global markets. Focussing on application areas including manufacturing, assistive and medical robots, offshore energy, environmental monitoring, search and rescue, defence, and support for the ageing population, amounting to a market space worth billions globally.

ORCA HUB logo
The Offshore Robotics for the Certification of Assets (ORCA) Hub

The ORCA Hub is a multi-million pound programme aimed at addressing the offshore energy industry's vision for a completely autonomous offshore energy field.

Launched in October 2017, ORCA Hub is part of the government’s £93m R&D funding on "Robotics and AI for Extreme Environments" through the Industry Strategic Challenge Fund (ISCF). The fund is delivered by UK Research and Innovation, and managed by EPSRC.

Led by the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, ORCA Hub brings together internationally leading experts with over 30 industry partners to create a multi-disciplinary consortium with unique expertise in:

  • Subsea, ground and aerial robotics
  • Human-machine Interaction
  • Innovative sensors for Non Destructive Evaluation and low-cost sensor networks
  • Asset management and certification

Seven use case scenarios were identified as the drivers for the 2018 capability demonstrations, applying RAI to offshore energy asset integrity using marine, topside (i.e. on platform) and aerial systems:

  • Subsea inspection - oil and gas
  • Autonomous Boat (Surface vehicle) support for ROV/Survey vehicle
  • Unmanned Autonomous Decommissioning
  • Decommissioning abandoned wells and environmental monitoring
  • Autonomous mobility and locomotion
  • FPSO inspection and maintenance
  • Online inspection for process equipment

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