Events Calendar

Cornelius Pings Lecture

Speaker: Professor Chryssostomos Chryssostomidis, Professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Talk Title: The Role of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in Future Deepwater Oil Exploration and Production

Series: Cornelius Pings Lecture

Abstract: The oil industry has moved into deeper and deeper waters to meet the continued high demand for oil. The move into deeper waters has required major innovations to keep the cost low without sacrificing safety. The first innovation, the use of ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles), has made possible subsea completions at ever increasing standoff distances from the producing platform. The use of ROVs keeps the associated cost of the producing platform reasonable but increases the cost of inspection and maintenance. Even the most routine inspection using an ROV requires the presence of large surface vessel to support the ROV increasing the daily cost of even the most routine maintenance operations by tens of thousands of dollars. This cost pressure has ushered in the second innovation namely the use of AUVs, which can be operated without a costly surface vessel, to meet the inspection needs of producing platforms.

Whether ROVs will be entirely replaced by AUVs is debatable, but we believe that in the next decade an increasing number of light maintenance tasks will be assigned to AUVs. During the lecture the genesis and evolution of modern AUV technology will be discussed. Associated technologies such as underwater communications, sensor technologies, and near real-time supervisory control will be presented. The design of a fully operational and integrated AUV offshore oil inspection system will be described and discussed.


Biography: Educated at MIT and at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in naval architecture, Professor Chryssostomidis was appointed to the MIT faculty in 1970 and became a full professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering in 1982. That same year he was appointed director of the MIT Sea Grant College Program where in 1989 he established the MIT Sea Grant Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Laboratory to develop technology and systems for advanced autonomous surface and underwater vehicles. He served as Department Head of the department of Ocean Engineering where he established the Ocean Engineering Teaching Laboratory from 1994 to 2002. He has been director of the MIT Ocean Engineering Department Design Laboratory since its inception in the early 1970s. In 2003, with MIT Sea Grant staff, he created the Sea Perch Program, funded by the Office of Naval Research. The Sea Perch program trains educators across the United States and around the world to build a simple, remotely operated underwater vehicle, or ROV, made from PVC pipe and other inexpensive, easily available materials.

In 1994 he was elected as Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineering. His over 100 publications display his wide range of interests including design methodology for ships, vortex-induced response of flexible cylinders, underwater vehicle design, design issues in advanced shipbuilding including the all electric ship and T-Craft. He receives research support from the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the Naval Sea Systems Command, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in addition to industry support. Professor Chryssostomidis has served on several National Research Council advisory committees focusing on shipbuilding and marine issues.


Host: Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

More Info: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/10-11/p-03-22-11.htm

Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - Room 450,

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Petra Pearce

Event Link: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/10-11/p-03-22-11.htm