This workshop is part of the European Robotics Forum (ERF) 2021. Please register for the conference at https://www.eu-robotics.net/robotics_forum/ in order to attend the workshop. The workshop is linked to the RIMA EU-project: https://rimanetwork.eu/
Motivation, objective, and expected outcome
More and more I&M robotics solutions are being deployed in a range of sectors (transportation, water, oil and gas, …) and Europe has many strong industry players in this area throughout the value chain with education, research, technology/service supply and end-users/asset owners. To further build the I&M robotics market potential, the community and further increase deployments of I&M robotics, the industry, the public sector and R&D need to look past the silos of today's market sectors to learn from each other and collaborate across sectors.
The objective of this workshop is to learn across industries and the public sector by investigating which synergies that can be exploited across I&M market sectors (rail, oil and gas, nuclear, energy distribution, and more) in terms of business and technology needs and challenges, as well as to also discuss what are the main differences between sectors. An understanding of synergies will contribute to further deployments of I&M robotics as well as to guide research efforts in the right direction. To achieve the workshop objective, the workshop participants will share and discuss key aspects on I&M robotics including business-to-business (B2B) end-user needs, best practices, lessons learned, success stories, challenges, new business models, technology gaps and need for research in connection with I&M robotics across a range of market sectors. We will focus on commercial and near-commercial deployments, but R&D will also be included. In addition to presentations, we will also arrange a brainstorming session to highlight synergies between market sectors.
The expected outcome of this workshop is an overview and common understanding of key challenges, technology needs and opportunities with current technology/service deployments which are relevant across market sectors (rail, oil and gas, nuclear, energy distribution, and more). This can help suppliers to identify potential new markets for their services and products, end users to identify potential collaborators in other industries, and R&D communities to identify research challenges which may give a large impact as they span across industries. Moreover, the results from the workshop will also give important input to the euRobotics I&M robotics topic group's work with contributing to the roadmapping work within euRobotics.
As for previous ERF workshops we have organized, we will provide a summary of the workshop and make this available through several channels.
Agenda and speakers
(Tenative program, changes may occur)
- 14:05-14:10 Introduction by the moderators (E. Zwicker, M. Sandelin, A. Transeth)
- 14:10-15:00 A series of short presentations given by end users (asset owners and operators), industrial service providers, robotic system suppliers, and research organizations. The presentations will share key aspects on I&M robotics including business-to-business (B2B) end-user needs, best practices, lessons learned, success stories, challenges, new business models, technology gaps and need for research in connection with I&M robotics - including successfully deployed robots and future developments.
- 15:00-15:20 Open brainstorming session moderated by E. Zwicker. The goal of the brainstorming session is to identify overlaps and similarities of the different application domains (oil&gas, public infrastructure, rail, ….) and to determine how to leverage these.
- 15:20-15:25 Summary and outlook.
Speakers
- [Petrochemical] Jürgen Moors, BASF, presenting on the topic of key enablers for robotic deployments at BASF
- [Maritime/oil and gas/water] Richard Moore, SINTEF, presenting on behalf of Scout Drone Inspection on the topic of UAVs for confined area inspections.
- [Roads] Tore Magnus Follinglo, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA), presenting on the topic of deploying UAVs in a large and distributed organization.
- [Oil and gas] Wolfgang Netzer, Taurob, presenting on the topic of deploying mobile robots for facility inspections.
- [Nuclear] Jean-Reynald Mace, ORANO, presenting on the topic of deployment of robotics in the nuclear industry.
- [Energy] Håkon Kjerkreit, KVS Technologies, presenting on the topic of large scale-up of UAV deployments for power grid inspections.
- [Rail] Ekkehard Zwicker, Waygate Technologies, presenting on the topic of smart maintenance with robotics in rail tunnels.
Further information
Information about the I&M Topic Group (TG) can be found on the SPARC portal
https://sparc-robotics-portal.eu/web/maintenance-and-inspection/home
The I&M TG already has 120 registered members on the SPARC portal. The workshop also have links to the RIMA network on robotics for infrastructure inspection and maintenance: https://rimanetwork.eu/
Stay updated
A summary of the workshop will be made available on the workshop's on the SPARC portal, distributed on the euRobotics mailing list and TG I&M robotics mailing lists (please register via the SPARC portal and/or the form below to be included on the TG I&M robotics mailing list).
