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Autonomous Robotic Inspection and Maintenance on Ship Hulls and Storage Tanks

Project description

Robots conduct ship hull inspection

Underwater hull cleaning is an important part of ship maintenance, which includes all techniques used to keep the part of the ship under the waterline in good condition. The EU-funded BugWright2 project will develop and demonstrate an adaptable autonomous robotic solution for servicing the outer hulls of ships. It will combine the survey capabilities of autonomous micro air vehicles (MAV) and small autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) with teams of magnetic-wheeled crawlers operating directly on the surface of the structure. The project will facilitate a multi-robot visual and acoustic inspection, detecting corrosion patches or cleaning the surface as necessary. What is more, the technology being developed may also be adapted to storage tanks or other structures assembled out of metal plates.

Objective

The objective of BUGWRIGHT2 will be to bridge the gap between the current and desired capabilities of ship inspection and service robots by developing and demonstrating an adaptable autonomous robotic solution for servicing ship outer hulls. By combining the survey capabilities of autonomous Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) and small Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), with teams of magnetic-wheeled crawlers operating directly on the surface of the structure, the project inspection and cleaning system will be able to seamlessly merge the acquisition of a global overview of the structure with performing a detailed multi-robot visual and acoustic inspection of the structure, detecting corrosion patches or cleaning the surface as necessary – all of this with minimal user intervention. The detailed information provided will be integrated into a real-time visualization and decision-support user-interface taking advantage of virtual reality technologies. Although ships are the targetted application, BUGWRIGHT2 technology may be easily adapted to different structures assembled out of metal plates, and in particular to storage tanks, our secondary application domain.

The project consists of a large consortium bringing together not only the technological knowledge from academia but the complete value chain of the inspection robotic market: two SMEs, one class society to evaluate the use of these technologies in the certification processes, a marine service provider and two harbors to provide access to ships, one shipyard to deploy the system within a maintenance framework and two shipowners. In addition, specialists in maritime laws and workplace psychologists will ensure that the digitalization of this market sector is designed around user acceptance. Finally, a specialist in innovation will lead the dissemination and exploitation activities.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

IA - Innovation action

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-ICT-2018-20

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Coordinator

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 765 296,25
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 882 926,25

Participants (22)

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