Thursday 7 January 2021

WavEC announces the end of the kraken project financed by FCT, GOBCAN-ACIISI and SEAI through OCEANERA-NET (Ocean Energy European Research Area Network).

Led by WavEC in Portugal, and involving four project partners from three countries, the Kraken project’s strategic goal was to develop and manufacture three distinctive components: a seven degree of freedom (eight function) 3D printed titanium robotic arm, a mechanical docking system and an intuitive human robot master interface. The Kraken project participants at project conclusion were WavEC Offshore Renewables, Portugal (project coordination), Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal, ULPGC - Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain and mCADFEM, Ireland.

The project Kraken set out to develop a viable robotic arm to be used with Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) for the inspection, repair and maintenance of offshore structures, specifically for ocean energy devices.

The Kraken project team has spent the last four years developing this new concept, which brings mature proven telemanipulation technologies from surgical rooms into the deep sea.

The research project has now been completed, and the Kraken team’s demonstrator has confirmed the concept’s viability. “The knowledge we have gained so far has already enabled us to achieve a considerable level of confidence and success, when approaching very challenging developments” is the common argument among the partners. “There is still room for improvement, as the project still needs to finalize the assembly of the control system with the hardware". The resources were limited and, despite it was managed to come a long way, there´s still a few more steps to get a fully working robotic arm.

The project has generated a major enthusiasm at the companies involved in the emerging market of underwater operations. The project team has already received very positive feedback from experts at numerous events. “We’ve seen a great deal of interest from experts in the sector” says project manager Miguel Cerezo from WavEC “And this enthusiastic response has also inspired our industry partners like Sintef Ocean, or Argus”.

“It was a complex project with an optimistic forecast, giving the limited resources” says the project manager “but the team was able to fully assemble a robotic arm that proves the correct design of all the mechanisms”.

The list of robotic arms available on the market has grown and evolved technically, which shows the increased demand for these products. This is the effect of the variety of operations that take place in the ocean, in many different fields, and it´s growth doesn’t show any limits yet. However, the existing robotic arms are below the level of development of the Kraken. The details that keep the Kraken up front are its 7 degrees of freedom + 1 function, the optical sensor control system and its relationship between lifting capacity and weight, by placing all the actuators at the base of the arm.