Monday 16 January 2023

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today the successful completion of its joint offshore verification test with French energy supermajor TotalEnergies measuring the electrical potential of subsea pipelines during close-range inspections using an AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle). The test was conducted off Awaji Island (Hyogo Prefecture, Japan)

Leveraging its long-accumulated submarine and industrial robot technologies, Kawasaki has been developing the world’s first AUV with a robot arm for subsea pipeline inspections, named SPICE (Subsea Precise Inspector with Close Eyes), in response to growing demand for subsea pipeline maintenance in offshore oil and gas fields.

In a 2020 verification test, conducted under the “Joint Technological Development Support Program for Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Fields” of DeepStar*² and The Nippon Foundation Ocean Innovation Consortium, SPICE achieved stable pipe-tracking performance, demonstrating high capability as a platform for close-range subsea pipeline inspections. Following this favorable outcome, Kawasaki decided to launch a joint research project proposed by TotalEnergies to integrate TotalEnergies’ electrical potential measurement technology, Light Touch Cathodic Protection called “LTCP”, with SPICE to make the AUV capable of measuring the electrical potential gradient of a pipeline allowing the detection of potential coating defects.

Starting in October 2020 and lasting through February 2021, basic design was completed and various integration simulations were performed. Then, beginning in August of 2021, more detailed design and modifications of SPICE were conducted in order to incorporate TotalEnergies’ LTCP. These preparations made possible the verification test off Awaji Island from August 30 through September 2, resulting in the successful measurement by LTCP integrated with SPICE of the electrical potential of subsea pipelines.

First, for this offshore test, simulated pipes and a corrosion protection system were placed on the seabed under the supervision of TotalEnergies. In the test, SPICE – utilizing its time-tested, excellent pipe-tracking capability and highly precise autonomous control of the robot arm – successfully performed measurements of electrical potential using the robot arm with its newly-integrated measurement device to check the pipelines’ state of protection against corrosion inferred by the measurement of the electrical potential. The successful outcome suggests that SPICE can achieve automation and reduce operational time in close-range subsea pipeline inspections currently performed by ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles), including measurement of electrical potential.

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