Management of a single-user multi-robot teleoperated system for handling large valves in offshore plants

Abstract

This paper proposes a new approach to task management method of a single-user multi-robot teleoperated system for handling large valves in offshore plants. The task management method is designed to perform a 1:N mode (here, 1 refers to the number of operators, and N denotes the number of robots), in which a single operator teleoperates a number of slave robots directly to conduct a large valve handling task, or in an autonomous cooperation mode between slave robots in order to overcome the limitations of the aforementioned 1:1 (here, 1 refers to the number of operators and slave robots) teleoperation mode. The aforementioned management method is responsible for the role sharing and integration of slave robots to divide the operation mode of the slave robots into various types according to the operator's intervention level and the characteristics of the target operation (valve handling) beforehand and to perform the target operation using the robot operation mode selected by the operator.