TELEOPERATED SERVICE ROBOT FOR HIGH QUALITY SHIPS' MAINTENANCE

Most shipyard repair operations are not currently automated. A huge number of constraints make maintenance operations such as hull blasting very difficult to automate. There are partial solutions like blasting turbines and ultrahigh pressure water blasting units for vertical walls. This paper details a proposal of incremental development using a robotic teleoperation platform for hull blasting operations funded by a European Consortium of shipyards, equipment manufacturers and research centres. Such system offers an integral solution for hull preparation complying with requirements of efficiency, worker safety and environmental care.