Robots: The Future of the Oil Industry

By David Wethe on August 30, 2012

Special Report

• Focus On Energy, September 2012

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• T. Boone Pickens: Where Has Fracking Damaged Anything?

• Robots: The Future of the Oil Industry

• Exploiting Coal by Burning It Underground

• Focus On Energy

NASA’s Mars rover may have something to teach the oil industry. Safely traversing the Red Planet while beaming data through space turns out to have a lot in common with exploring the deepest recesses of earth in search of crude oil and natural gas. Robotic Drilling Systems, a small Norwegian company that’s bent on developing a drilling rig that can think for itself, has signed an information-sharing agreement with NASA to discover what it might learn from Curiosity. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-30/robots-the-future-of-the-oil-industry