Funding boost for Orca Hub offshore robotics

News

ORCA Hub has secured £2.5m of further funding from UK Research & Innovation to support the development of robots for the offshore energy industry.

Working with industry partners, ORCA (Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets) Hub’s aim is to help the offshore energy industry use robots to safely inspect, maintain and repair platforms, wind turbines, and other infrastructure, guided by humans on ships or on shore.

£600,000 of the new funding will be used to help deliver six demonstration projects with industrial partners, including the inspection of wind turbine foundations and the deployment of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors.

Telexistence technology to assess robot in hazardous tasks

The remaining £1.9m will fund an extension of ORCA Hub’s activities to see if technologies and processes developed by the Edinburgh-based Hub can be used in sectors including construction and urban infrastructure through to decommissioning and waste management.

In a statement, Hub director Professor Yvan Petillot said: “The international offshore energy industry is undergoing a revolution, adopting aggressive net-zero objectives, and shifting rapidly towards large scale offshore wind energy production.

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