Autonomous inspection robots make a positive contribution to the uptime of existing plants by providing a broad range of data without the need for time-consuming and cost-intensive upgrades to local sensor installations. What is new here is the 'joined-up thinking' of operating processes and autonomous systems - in addition to the technical and regulatory challenges, this is a key requirement. The essential intrinsic acceptance of employees, who see added value for themselves and the company in the technology, should also not be underestimated. The automation of complex and individual activities requires a strong interlinking of robotics, digitalization and artificial intelligence.

The needs of industry and the possible complementary potential of the market have shown the need for an up-to-date look at the latest developments. But how can suitable solutions be found on the market? Does it see the same potential or is it developing in a completely different direction from the perspective of the process industry? Is there a need for greater cooperation with the industry? This raises the question of how to proceed: Do you compare different solutions in a decision matrix or do you need a 'competition of robots'?

Robots in competition

Roboverse Reply's solution convinced the jury and won first place in the AIRA Challenge.

© Merck

Representatives from various companies in the process industry met early on to discuss the need for robot-supported automation. Efforts were quickly made to organize a public competition in 2020/21.

The idea was to set robots representative use cases from the process industry as a task on the stage of a competition. In the end, it was the jury's vote that counted. The objectives of the competition were to advance the state of the art, motivate the market to meet the requirements of the industry and create modular solutions that anyone can purchase and use economically in the future. Under the auspices of NAMUR e.V., the Association for Automation Technology in the Process Industry, its members BASF, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck and Wacker organized the innovation competition 'Advanced Industrial Robotic Applications Challenge' (AIRA Challenge for short) with the help of Invite.

The competition

The competition was to take place in summer 2022 at Achema in Frankfurt am Main, the world's largest trade fair for the chemical engineering, process engineering and biotechnology industries. In a tight schedule, the organizing committee: determined tasks and evaluation criteria, formulated tenders and developed an exhibition stand with team boxes and the actual competition course. The competition was published in November 2021 so that participants could submit a proposal. By the closing date, around a dozen applicants had submitted their proposed solutions. Following interviews and technical discussions, the jury nominated six finalists for the competition at Achema. The nominees included university groups, start-ups and established companies.

The competition was divided into a conceptual and a practical part:

In the conceptual part, the finalists had to work out how they could imagine their solution being used in potentially explosive atmospheres on the one hand and how they could implement a modular payload carrier concept on the other.

In the practical part of the competition, the robot had to navigate completely autonomously and error-free through a course with obstacles - stairs and various floor coverings. One of the most complex tasks was to perform an autonomous test pull from a standard sampling valve using a manipulator mounted on the robot. In addition, the sample had to be transported to a specified storage location and analog manometer values had to be recorded from different perspectives.

Six teams in the final

In the practical part of the competition, the robot had to navigate autonomously and error-free through a course with obstacles.

© Merck

Six competing teams faced each other in the final, with completely different solutions competing against each other - from market-ready products and their specific extensions to complete in-house developments. The participants were:

• Anybotics from Zurich with the walking robot 'Anymal'
• Engrotec with 'Mobert', a mobile manipulator based on an Omron AMR platform
• Team Hector from TU Darmstadt with the chain-driven robotics solution 'Telerob'
• Roboverse Reply with Boston Dynamics' 'Spot' as a robot platform
• Team SIMA of the TU Kaiserlautern with a self-developed solution
• URG/FZI with Boston Dynamics' 'Spot' as robot platform

First place, endowed with 40,000 euros, went to the Roboverse Reply team for its mobile, agile, precise and fast solution. Second place went to the Anybotics team, which received 20,000 euros. Anybotics impressed with its sophisticated concept for use in a potentially explosive environment. Team Mobert from the EngRoTec Group won 3rd place and 15,000 euros. Mobert impressed with the precision of its robotic arm's movements - however, Mobert was forced to avoid the stairs.

Team SIMA (TU Kaiserslautern) had been building its robot platform from scratch since March. This solution was not fully developed in the short time available, but together with Team Hector and the URG/FZI, it took fourth place with prize money of 10,000 euros.

'Challenge accepted, challenge taken'

In addition to the excitement of a challenge, the organizing companies and the participants had a lasting exchange and a lot of inspiration for new applications of mobile inspection robots. The initial question about the approach was answered, the 'competition of robots' fulfilled its purpose as an 'amplifier and icebreaker' to bundle and address the needs of the individual companies. The question of whether the market sees the same potential as the process industry can be answered in the affirmative, taking into account the details. Robot manufacturers and their integrators have realized that requirements for modularity, explosion protection and machine safety are not 'nice to have' features, but are in some cases essential for use.

The industrial community has also become more networked and its concerns have been brought to the attention of the Namur interest group, which is now working on the requirements for integrating mobile inspection robots into the industrial environment. Issues such as machine safety, IT/OT security and explosion protection initially appear to be insurmountable hurdles. For various reasons, it is also not possible to clearly classify them in existing standards structures. For this reason, a working group has been formed within NAMUR to provide assistance here.

The challenges faced by system integrators and manufacturers in Europe when operating inspection robots are discussed in more detail in Part 3 of this article series.