Robots, Drones, UAVs and UGVs for Operation and Maintenance

Industrial assets (such as railway lines, roads, pipelines) are usually huge, span long distances, and can be divided into clusters or segments that provide different levels of functionality subject to different loads, degradations and environmental conditions, and their efficient management is necessary. The aim of the book is to give comprehensive understanding about the use of autonomous vehicles (context of robotics) for the utilization of inspection and maintenance activities in industrial asset management in different accessibility and hazard levels. The usability of deploying inspection vehicles in an autonomous manner is explained with the emphasis on integrating the total process.

Key Features

• Aims for solutions for maintenance and inspection problems provided by robotics, drones, unmanned air vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles
• Discusses integration of autonomous vehicles for inspection and maintenance of industrial assets
• Covers the industrial approach to inspection needs and presents what is needed from the infrastructure end
• Presents the requirements for robot designers to design an autonomous inspection and maintenance system
• Includes practical case studies from industries

Dr. Diego Galar is Full Professor of Condition Monitoring in the Division of Operation and Maintenance Engineering at LTU, Luleå University of Technology where he is coordinating several H2020 projects related to different aspects of cyber physical systems, Industry 4.0, IoT or Industrial AI and Big Data. He was also involved in the SKF UTC centre located in Lulea focused on SMART bearings and also actively involved in national projects with the Swedish industry or funded by Swedish national agencies like Vinnova.

He is also principal researcher in Tecnalia (Spain), heading the Maintenance and Reliability research group within the Division of Industry and Transport.

He has authored more than five hundred journal and conference papers, books and technical reports in the field of maintenance, working also as member of editorial boards, scientific committees and chairing international journals and conferences and actively participating in national and international committees for standardization and R&D in the topics of reliability and maintenance.

In the international arena, he has been visiting Professor in the Polytechnic of Braganza (Portugal), University of Valencia and NIU (USA) and the Universidad Pontificia Católica de Chile. Currently, he is visiting professor in University of Sunderland (UK), University of Maryland (USA), and Chongqing University in China.

Uday Kumar, the Chaired Professor of Operation and Maintenance Engineering is Director of Luleå Railway Research Center and Scientific Director of the Strategic Area of Research and Innovation- Sustainable Transport at Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden. Before joining Luleå University of Technology, Dr. Kumar was Professor of Offshore Technology (Operation and Maintenance Engineering) at Stavanger University, Norway. Professor Kumar has research interest in the subject area of Reliability and Maintainability Engineering, Maintenance modelling, Condition Monitoring, LCC & Risk analysis etc. He has published more than 300 papers in International Journals and peer reviewed Conferences and has made contributions to many edited books. He has supervised more than 25 PhD Theses related to the area of reliability and maintenance. Prof Kumar has been a keynote and invited speaker at numerous congresses, conferences, seminars, industrial forums, workshops and academic Institutions. He is an elected member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Dammika Seneviratne currently works as Post-doctoral researcher in the Division of Operation and Maintenance - Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden and senior researcher in Tecnalia, Spain. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, specialized in Production engineering. He received his M.Sc. degree in Mechatronics Engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. After working for a number of years as a Mechanical Maintenance Engineer in various organizations he attained a PhD degree in Offshore Technology from the University of Stavanger. His research interests include condition monitoring, operation and maintenance engineering in railway systems; risk based inspection planning in offshore oil and gas facilities; reliability and risk analysis and managements, and risk based maintenance.