The aim of this project is to offer robotic services on or around the hulls of large commercial vessels. The EU-funded BugWright2 project will facilitate a multi-robot visual and acoustic inspection of the whole structure from robotic platforms in the air and underwater, detecting corrosion patches or cleaning the surface as necessary. The latter has the potential to very significantly reduce the fuel consumption of merchant vessels and as a result, reduce the need for antifouling paint on the hulls. It will combine the survey capabilities of autonomous MAV and small AUV with teams of magnetic-wheeled crawlers operating directly on the surface of the structure. The technology being developed may also be adapted to storage tanks or other structures assembled out of metal plates.
This H2020 project aims at changing the European landscape of robotics for infrastructure inspection and maintenance and will lead to important economic and ecologic break-through in this sector.