Exploration & Production activities are often carried out in extreme conditions with many constraints: extreme cold, arid climate, isolated sites, onshore and offshore, etc. In order to meet these new challenges, continue optimizing our operations and make them even safer, Total launched at the end of 2013 the first robotics challenge in the oil & gas industry: the ARGOS Challenge (Autonomous Robot for Gas & Oil Sites).

Design the first autonomous surface robots able to operate on oil & gas sites

Five teams from Austria and Germany (ARGONAUTS), Spain and Portugal (FOXIRIS), France (VIKINGS), Japan (AIR-K) and Switzerland (LIO) competed to create robots able to carry out inspection tasks, detect anomalies and intervene in emergency situations.

Three competitions, one winner

From June 2015 to March 2017, three competitions were organized in partnership with the French National Research Agency (ANR) in a former gas dehydration unit in Lacq (Southwest France), in conditions close to those found on Total's production installations.

In May 2017, ARGONAUTS was declared winner of the ARGOS Challenge.