Inspection robots complete six months of offshore missions
Key highlights:
- Autonomous robots enable continuous, repeatable inspections, improving data quality and operational insights.
- Robots can operate safely in hazardous zones, reducing the need for risky offshore personnel visits.
- A case study with Shell shows successful deployment on unmanned platforms, achieving six months of maintenance-free operation.
- Robotic inspections support predictive maintenance, helping to prevent unplanned downtime and optimize asset performance.
- Offshore autonomy enhances safety, reduces costs and provides real-time situational awareness, transforming traditional inspection practices.
By Mark Mildon, ExRobotics
For offshore operators, inspection has always been constrained by logistics: helicopter schedules, weather windows, bed space and permit-to-work complexity.
In an era of reduced manning and aging infrastructure, those constraints are intensifying. Many offshore assets were never designed for today’s workforce realities. At the same time, safety and emissions scrutiny continues to increase.
The question is no longer whether platforms can be inspected. It is whether they can be inspected consistently, frequently and safely enough to meet modern expectations.
Offshore has moved beyond robotics demonstrations. What matters now is operational autonomy—repeatable robotic missions embedded into daily asset management.
ExRobotics is focusing on enabling smart robotic missions that deliver better data, boost productivity and keep offshore operations on track. Its ExR-2.5 inspection robots have completed thousands of successful missions and been deployed by major operators including Shell, bp and Repsol, supporting inspections across upstream, downstream, LNG and chemical facilities.
Autonomous missions provide consistency traditional inspection lacks
Traditional offshore inspection relies on physical presence. Technicians enter hazardous zones to perform visual checks, read gauges, listen for abnormal sounds and verify asset integrity. These routines remain essential, but they are periodic by nature. They depend on shift patterns, weather access and time pressure. A minor shutdown can require mobilizing personnel from another installation hours away. Every offshore visit carries cost and risk.
Autonomous robotic missions introduce a different model. Instead of periodic inspection, data collection becomes continuous and structured. Robots follow the same routes, stop at the same inspection points and generate comparable datasets over time. That repeatability turns subjective observations into measurable trends particularly valuable for normally unmanned installations where access is limited.
Case study: Operating 175 km offshore
In 2024, Shell deployedExRobotics' ExR-2.5 inspection robot on one if its normally unmanned installation offshore platforms, located 175 km (108.7 miles) offshore and 16 km (9.9 miles) from the nearest manned facility.
The platform had no safe zones, no workshop facilities and no resident maintenance staff. Any intervention required offshore mobilization.
Following the commissioning of a new pump module, the operator sought to reduce unplanned downtime without increasing offshore visits. The objective was to introduce predictive inspection while minimizing human exposure.
The IECEx Zone 1-certified ExR-2 inspection robot conducted twice-daily rounds, collecting pressure and temperature readings; vibration indicators; gas and liquid seepage detection; and visual and thermal inspection imagery.
The environment was demanding. The robot navigated narrow corridors, traveled across open steel grid mesh flooring and operated in a fully hazardous Zone 1 area exposed to salt spray and heavy weather. It inspected 20 defined points of interest before returning to an Ex-certified induction charging dock.
Preparation reduced risk. Grid mesh flooring was replicated onshore to validate manoeuvrability. The platform’s digital twin was used to simulate routes. Wireless coverage and docking placement were verified.
In the event of a shutdown or anomaly, the robot could inspect equipment immediately, allowing engineers to assess the situation and determine whether personnel needed to travel from the nearest manned installation. The robot examined critical equipment once or twice every day. It was not practical nor affordable for human operators to travel to this unmanned facility every day, especially during bad weather.
Results: Six months without physical intervention
Six months after commissioning:
- 80% of missions were completed without intervention;
- The remainder were completed following minor remote adjustments;
- 1,997 inspection points were recorded;
- 9.33 km (5.79 miles) were traveled; and
- No physical servicing was required offshore.
For a platform without maintenance facilities, that reliability was critical. Returning the robot to shore would have involved significant cost and delay. Instead, it delivered twice-daily inspection data without increasing offshore headcount.
A structural shift offshore
Ex-certified autonomous robots are engineered to operate safely in hazardous environments without becoming an ignition source. They can continue operating in the presence of gas, localizing and documenting issues instead of triggering immediate evacuation.
For offshore operators, that creates time and clarity. Robots permanently based on a platform provide constant situational awareness, helping distinguish between transient anomalies and genuine risks while reducing unnecessary shutdowns.
Autonomous inspection systems are not a replacement for offshore crews. They are an enabling layer within a broader strategy that includes fixed detectors and aerial monitoring, but they shift inspection from periodic and reactive to persistent and data-driven.
Offshore autonomy is no longer experimental. It is operational.
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About the Author
Mark Mildon
Since 2023, Mark Mildon has held the role of CEO of ExRobotics, a Netherlands-headquartered specialist in Ex-certified autonomous inspection robots for hazardous industrial environments. He has an MEng from Durham University and an MBA from INSEAD. He spent 20-plus years in the automotive industry in a variety of roles across the supply chain and original equipment manufacturers.