SUBSEA INNOVATION CLUSTER AUSTRALIA: SYNERGIES BETWEEN DEFENCE AND THE ENERGY SECTOR

By Dr Colin McIvor,

Cluster Manager, The Subsea Innovation Cluster of Australia

The Subsea Innovation Cluster of Australia (SICA) was formed in Perth from the natural cluster of expertise and capabilities that have developed from the growth of the oil and gas industry. The formation of SICA provides a valuable focal point to engage with the defence industry to apply best practices from oil and gas and foster the development of new, and innovative solutions.

Typhoon 23, installed on the Ocean Monarch at anchor just off Perth, ready to head out for its next campaign. The Typhoon Mk2 150hp Work Class ROVs were all designed and built by TMT in Perth, and are all currently deployed offshore, around the globe. © TMT.

MMA Subsea AUV in launch position to be used to map the seabed for proposed pipeline route using multibeam bathymetry and side-scan sonar. © MMA Subsea.

There is now a significant talent pool of subsea scientists, engineers and innovators, along with the associated research facilities, courses and highly specialised manufacturing infrastructure necessary to service the growing number of subsea facilities in region.

Additionally, there is significant crossover with the autonomous and remote sensing technology being developed in the mining sector. Building on this, SICA comprises a group of SMEs, research institutions, and oil and gas companies with a shared mission to enable the growth of Australia’s subsea economy by providing an innovation focused, multi-disciplined, collaborative and sustainable environment.

SICA acts to coordinate and facilitate collaborative efforts between industry and members, aligning capabilities to suit the requirements of the challenge at hand. To date this work has been performed both in response to clear operational needs, in addition to facilitating forward planning sessions which ensure that industry procurement strategies evolve to match the growing capabilities of local industry.

The unique nature of the marine environment in Western Australia and the large distances involved compared with other regions has led to significant local innovation. There are considerable synergies between the subsea oil and gas and the defence sector as both seek to operate complex assets efficiently with high availability requirements and high consequence of unplanned downtime. Due to the particularly harsh environment, the subsea industry has tended to be an early adopter and developer of new technologies, in particular those that will eliminate the need to have the most vulnerable defence target present - people.

Key focal areas for oil and gas subsea technology development that are directly applicable to Defence include asset monitoring, management and maintenance. Subsea facilities are difficult to access and any scenario that would lead to equipment failure will lead to lengthy and costly delays. This has led to the development of deep expertise in materials science, so that complex material and coating combinations can withstand the harsh environmental, biological and chemical conditions in which they must operate.

In particular, the understanding of corrosion mechanisms in marine environments and integrity management at welds have proven to be critical areas. Recent advances in computational capacity and data management techniques have enabled corrosion and weld integrity to be incorporated into automated digital twins so that detailed engineering assessments can be performed rapidly. AUTOMATION & AI

This though needs to be combined with ongoing inspection and repair regimes to maintain and guarantee this integrity. Initially, the inspection side of this was carried out by divers which required significant infrastructure, and much more so if carried out at any significant depth. The subsea industry has probably seen the fastest and most sophisticated adoption of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).

These allow for inspection in the most harsh and dangerous conditions with no operator danger. These vehicles range in size from small almost disposable inspection robots to very large robots capable of significant payload capabilities. In fact, a WA company has recently developed, and is exporting, a robot capable of operating at an incredible and bone-crushing 6km underwater.

These robots are now being enhanced with significant Artificial Intelligence capabilities allowing them to autonomously carry out inspections

and make decisions on areas that require further attention. A task that would previously have taken human operators days inspecting video footage can now be done in seconds. Additionally, with the development of newer power and battery systems some of these remote systems can be deployed and left in situ for months at a time ‘waking up’ when required to perform a task. PIONEERING TECHNOLOGY

The important maintenance of very complex and costly systems, which are in many instances beginning to operate well beyond their design life, benefit from significant engineering effort to understand the active degradation mechanisms so that maintenance efforts can be targeted at critical areas.

Asset managers who value decision speed and confidence are finding the benefits of adopting a digital engineering strategy with automation at its core by constructing automated digital twins that represent their assets. A detailed asset model designed to enable automated engineering enables a deep understanding of critical systems and can deliver rapid insight on asset condition during inspection and operation.

The approaches developed in the pursuit of optimal management of high-value hydrocarbon assets are readily transferred to critical systems elsewhere – whether floating, subsea, onshore or near-shore – that share the same characteristics of cost, complexity, remote or isolated operations and consequences of downtime.

The expertise to guide the adoption of a digital integrity management exists locally in SICA, with member companies at the forefront of pioneering the technology and constructing automated digital twins that are now used for the majority of critical subsea assets in Australia.

Additionally, working with the existing capability and knowledge base in industry will enhance a key element of the role of national security - to guarantee critical and sovereign supply chains - such as oil and gas for Australia’s economy. The exposure of critical oil and gas infrastructure to intentional acts of sabotage requires a coordinated and concerted effort. Having a strong understanding of these assets is key to developing an appropriate defence strategy.

According to the defence industry advocacy group, Henderson Alliance, around 75% of local defence SMEs are, to varying capacities, already engaged in work within the resources sector. Conversely, however, there appear to be comparatively fewer resources sector companies that are involved in the defence sector.

However, in the case of SICA over a third of our members are involved in the defence sector to varying degrees and there is a push to significantly increase this through appropriate upskilling and prequalification.

Vessel launch of a Blue Ocean Marine Services AUV to carry out subsea pipeline inspection with bathymetry, side-scan sonar and digital imagery payloads. © Blue Ocean Marine Services.

By Kate Devitt,

Chief Scientist, Trusted Autonomous Systems CRC

Smart autonomous systems have captured the imagination of Defence. Robotic platforms can lighten the load by supporting logistics and completing dangerous jobs. Human operators can govern the actions of drone swarms to produce surprising effects in line with commanders’ intent and achieving asymmetric advantage. Fleets of resilient, self-repairing, self-maintaining autonomous vessels can patrol our waters and keep Australia safe.

As Chief Defence Scientist, Tanya Monro notes, “AI technologies offer many benefits such as saving lives by removing humans from high-threat environments and improving Australian advantage by providing more in-depth and faster situational awareness. Building ethical approaches Upfront engagement and tools are a vital part of on AI technologies, and consideration of ethical advancing these technologies, aspects needs to occur in but this poses a question: parallel with technology development.” will Australia making ethical Defence wants cuttingautonomous systems enable edge, safe, reliable, and effective technologies that and embolden adversaries, work alongside Australian giving an advantage to those operators. Building ethical approaches and tools are with potentially different a vital part of advancing ethical standards? these technologies, but this poses a question: in building ethical autonomous systems will Australia enable and embolden adversaries, giving an advantage to those with potentially different ethical standards? Discussion on the ethics of warfare is as old as war itself. Decisions in war are made under uncertainty. Knowing or doing what is right and what is good is not easy. Each military provides guidance on ethical behaviour through diverse means such as commitment to Defence values, doctrine, education and training, mentorship, experience, demonstrated practice, individual effort to be ethical, and in the way that actions are rewarded, lauded, and punished. Human-machine teams must behave in accordance with existing and emerging ethical frameworks to empower human agency, enhance action, and ensure moral responsibility.

Professor Jason Scholz, who is the CEO, Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence CRC, acknowledges that there are concerns from the public and the defence sector that “our ethical standards may be quite different from our potential adversaries” and that this “might create concerns that we are ethically conservative and put our defence force at a disadvantage.” However, he believes that an ethical approach will not see the ADF lose its advantage if Australia gets the systems, processes, and policies right. MAJGEN Mick Ryan, Commander, Australian Defence College recently said that “technology is never a silver bullet in any military institution. It really is about the ideas, the new organisations, and the people who use these new technologies.” He noted it was important to think about how “we team these things with people in a way that makes us more likely to be successful in our missions” from warfighting through to humanitarian missions and disaster relief, and “do it in a way that accords with the values of our country first, and foremost, and then our institutional values as well.” WGCDR Michael Gan, the Royal Australian Air Force’s Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Processing Lead at Plan Jericho said that “because a lot of AI users some sort of autonomous reasoning to make decisions, we have to make sure that we have a connection with the decisions that are being made, whether it is in the building phase, whether it is in the training phase, whether it is in the data, which underpins the systems”. To that end, in 2021 Defence Science in A Method for Ethical AI in Defence technical report identified five facets of ethical AI to drive the development of trusted autonomous systems: responsibility (who is responsible for AI?), governance (how is AI controlled?), trust (how can AI be trusted), law (how can AI be used lawfully?), and traceability (how are

The Athena Battle Room is a battlefield management concept created by Australian SME Athena AI. The concept integrates decision support products, such as vision and geo-spatial AI, with decision support algorithms to optimise human-centred decisions that also incorporate ethical and legal compliance. © AthenaAI.

the actions of AI recorded?) aligned with existing and emerging best practise frameworks internationally. Australia’s practical approach includes three tools: an AI Checklist for the development of ethical AI systems, an ‘Ethical AI Risk Matrix’ to describe identified risks and proposed treatment, and – for larger programs – a Data Item Descriptor (DID) for contractors to develop a formal Legal, Ethical and Assurance Program Plan (LEAPP) for project documentation of AI programs where an ethical risk assessment is above a certain threshold.

These tools align with current requirements for developers who must already produce risk documentation for technical issues. Documentation for ethical risks ensures developers identify, acknowledge, and attempt to mitigate ethical risks early in the design process and throughout testing and evaluation of AI.

A 2021 Centre for Security and Emerging Technology report Responsible and Ethical Military AI Allies and Allied Perspectives says that the Australian “method is the clearest articulation of ethical AI for defence among the Indo-Pacific allies” and is “one of the most concrete practices that US allies have thus far developed for AI ethics implementation in defence”.

AVM Cath Roberts, Head of Air Force Capability said “artificial intelligence and human-machine teaming will play a pivotal role for air and space power into the future… We need to ensure that ethical, moral and legal issues are resolved at the same pace as the technology is developed.”

AI and human-machine teaming will be a key capability in the future of Australian Defence systems. The method for ethical AI allows Defence to access the many benefits of increasing AI and autonomous systems capabilities considerate of ethical aspects.

By Terry Booth,

Special Correspondent, WA DEFENCE REVIEW

Total Green Recycling is yet another West Australian company that came into existence through the sheer entrepreneurial spirit of ordinary people. It began when the Coghill brothers, Michael and James, started collecting e-waste left on the verge for council removal, and found ways to make money from it. This alerted them to the potential for a more sophisticated operation and so, in 2008, Total Green Recycling was born.

Total Green eliminates the risk of data leakage by permanently destroying the data they hold, to United States military-grade standards. What’s more, they have specialist expertise in finding the best way to dispose of the assets to produce a cash return while preserving our increasingly fragile environment. “Data destruction technology tends to move faster than organisations update their IT protection policies,” says company Director Michael Coghill. “Total Green offers a consulting service to help update policies to take best advantage of what is now available.”

The company can bring its state-of-the-art equipment to any site to destroy data, totally eliminating any risk of devices ‘falling off the back of a truck’. Alternatively, for those who need everything removed from their premises, they can also receive it at their two Perth recycling centres, at Canning Vale and Welshpool.

Their US-sourced National Security Agency degausser equipment provides a detailed, verifiable record of each and every hard drive eliminated, together with a certificate of data destruction. It generates a powerful charge in just 15 seconds and sends a strong magnetic field through the drive, making data both unreadable and unrecoverable. The physical NSA destroyer unit then physically breaks the drive.

But for those who wish to destroy data but retain their devices, the company offers Blancco data erasure software that is certified to industry standards. This completely erases data while keeping the drive itself operable. This method can also be used to safely onsell equipment - the highest and best environmental solution, reducing consumption of new product. Total Green is adept at repairing or upgrading equipment to meet the market’s needs.

Beyond this level of recycling, they move to the materials recovery stage, where devices are mechanically separated on a production line, and the diverse materials are hand-sorted into categories. A vast range of metals is thus recovered, including ferrous metals, aluminium, copper, brass and precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The company cooperates with Mitsubishi to smelt and recover these materials. In their bulk form they may find their way back into new electronic components, or into uses far removed from IT, such as Olympic medals and jewellery.

Aside from metals, the recycling process recovers leaded and unleaded glass, paper, cardboard, batteries, plastics, ink and toner, wood and fluorescent light globes – all materials that can be put back into meeting the world’s needs while minimising their carbon footprint. On that score, every client of Total Green receives a final report showing the estimated carbon reduction figure they have achieved by choosing to recycle.

Company records show that in a 12-month period, Total Green recycled around 2500t of e-waste and recovered 5.6kg of gold, 60kg of silver, 1.7kg of platinum and 20t of copper from circuit boards. Mind boggling!

“But there is still a long way to go in spreading the recycling culture,” comments Michael Coghill. “While 80% of the world’s steel comes from recycling, only 20% of electronics is thus produced.” Total Green Recycling serves as both a challenge and a solution to WA industry – to care for Earth’s fragile environment, while completely eliminating risk from data leakage and generating income from recycling. A win-win-win situation like that is a rare thing, but exists today in WA.

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