A new robot has been developed in Europe, which removes marine growth from ship hull. The robot does this by first creating a map of the ship’s hull surface area, which includes all irregularities such as thickness change, weld locations, rivets and indentations. The pressurized sea water is then used to remove the marine growth from ship’s surface. The area created by robot is also used to compare the ship’s surface between operations, which allows detect recent damages due to corrosion or other factors. The cleaning of hull helps ships maintain a lower drag resistance, hence saving fuel.

 
Reference: business24-7.ae/articles/2008/9/pages/09212008_fce4d94e617a4965b38ea83567c08794.aspx

  cleaning, ship