Amphibian

Regular hull inspection are an essential part of ensuring the safe operation and navigation of all ships. Larger commercial vessels must be inspected thoroughly every year and are also required to have a secondary inspection every three years and every five years (in dock) by a classification society (DNV-GL, Lloyd’s Register, ABS, Bureau Veritas) [IACS rules].

With recent developments in digitalization and robotic technologies, additional alternative methods, such as remote inspection technologies and automatic inspection technologies, are being evaluated and are gaining acceptance by the Class and Statutory bodies (Wen, Pray, McSweeney and Gu, 2019). Remote Visual Inspection (RVI) uses divers or ROVs to record defects as photographs or videos. Effectiveness depends on accessibility due to the hull coating and biofouling, lighting levels and viewing distance. They are also subject to buffeting by waves and ocean currents, limiting detection accuracy and ability to report the exact location of defects.

Robotic platforms using NDT can produce better quality and higher density data streams but need a clean surface, close contact with the hull and precise positioning to determine the exact location of the defect.

While hull cleaning will reduce drag, saving around 9% of fuel (MFAME 2023) there are also environmental issues regarding transfer of invasive species between marine environments. This is the subject of a proposed global standard for ship hull cleaning (BIMCO, 2020).

There is a need for a safer, technology-driven, cost-effective robotic UWILD solution with autonomous guidance and a debris retrieval system to drive down project costs for the thousands of vessels that require periodic and statutory underwater inspections.

Innvotek's Amphibian, is a remotely operated magnetic crawler platform that, crucially, can work in the difficult splash zone above and below the waterline. Amphibian offers close contact with the hull while allowing travel in any direction and attitude over a steel surface, with configurable payloads for cleaning the hull of biofouling to facilitate NDT inspections.