Offshore rig, industrial facility and maritime vessel inspection and maintenance involve tasks that are dull, dirty and dangerous, making them ideal for advanced robotics. Surface maintenance operations, or fabric maintenance, like corrosion detection, surface preparation, and recoating, are increasingly difficult to staff and need reliable, efficient, scalable robotic solutions to meet rising challenges.
The Robotic Engineering for Paint and Industrial Renewal (REPAIR) consortium – hosted by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) – addresses challenges with surface maintenance operations by bringing together asset owners, service providers and equipment manufacturers. By focusing on technology development projects, the consortium has the potential to transform industries and create new opportunities in oil and gas, shipbuilding and repair, chemical facilities, nuclear sites and more.
REPAIR Consortium Goals
REPAIR aims to develop scalable and adaptable advanced robotic hardware and software solutions centered around surface maintenance operations such as corrosion detection, surface preparation, and recoating. The consortium’s goals are to improve the full chain of operations in environments including offshore, refineries, chemical production facilities, ship systems and more by bringing together:
The laser coating removal robot (LCR), developed by SwRI and XYREC, is one of the world’s largest robotic arms and is designed to remove coatings from large assets like wide-body aircraft using a 20 kW laser.
- Asset Owners - Driving robotic innovation to meet goals.
- Service Providers - Performing maintenance according to asset owner requirements.
- Equipment Providers - Designing, manufacturing and selling equipment according to asset owner and service provider specifications.
Membership
For membership and other questions, please contact Branson Brockschmidt or call +1 210 522 6813.
SwRI's Role in REPAIR
REPAIR leverages SwRI's expertise in manufacturing robotics, mechanical engineering and oil and gas services. SwRI is a leading facilitator of R&D Consortia spanning deep sea to deep space. SwRI co-founded and facilitates the ROS-Industrial Americas Consortium, a project dedicated to advancing open-source robotics for manufacturing and sustainment operations.