Title
A cost-effective robotic solution for the cleaning of ships' hulls
Abstract
Hull cleaning before repainting is a key operation in the maintenance of ships. For more than a decade, a means to improve this operation has been sought through robotization and the use of different techniques such as grit blasting and ultra high pressure water jetting. Despite this, it continues to be standard practice in shipyards that this process is carried out manually. This paper presents a family of robots that aims to offer important improvements to the process as well as satisfying, to a great extent, all the operative requirements of efficiency, security, and respect for the environment that shipyards nowadays demand. It is described the family of devices with emphasis on the mechanical design. This set consists of two vertical robotic towers and a robot climber. In addition, it is shown the control architecture of the global system. Finally, operative results are presented together with a comparison between the performance achieved in shipyards through the use of these robots and those obtained with a manual process.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1017/S0263574709005797
Robotica
Keywords
DocType
Volume
different technique,manual process,cost-effective robotic solution,great extent,operative result,control architecture,global system,hull cleaning,grit blasting,operative requirement,key operation
Journal
28
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
3
0263-5747
7
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.64
3
8
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
A. Iborra1151.95
J. A. Pastor2131.51
Diego Alonso38516.37
Barbara Alvarez4565.10
F. j. Ortiz570.64
P. j. Navarro6374.24
C. Fernández770.64
J. Suardiaz8121.48