108 Marine life is notorious for attaching itself to any structure that people place in the sea, and a barnacle-encrusted hull is a sure sign of a neglected vessel that consequently suffers from increased hydrodynamic drag, fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions. Barnacles, however, are looked on as macro-fouling – larger organisms that rely on ‘micro-fouling’ in the form of much smaller ones such as algae, bacteria and slimes to provide a base layer and initial food source. Regularly brushing this micro-fouling off the hulls of a wide range of military and civilian vessels could become big business for the underwater robotics industry, so Armach Robotics, with its Hull Service Robot (HSR), is about to commercialise its EverClean service on a large scale. Rather than selling the robot systems though, Armach offers EverClean as a service to be delivered in port or with systems that live aboard a vessel. Military roots Karl Lander, director of regulatory compliance and outreach at Armach Robotics – a spin-off from Greensea Systems – recalls that the genesis of the idea was in a US Navy Office of Naval Research (ONR) project to develop an autonomous robot for cleaning hulls. Greensea impressed the ONR sufficiently that it awarded the company a Small Business Technology Transfer contract to advance the technology and provide a capability that could be delivered to the Navy. With these contracts, the Navy is not looking for a military-only capability, for which it would have to cover all the development costs, so any technology must have a path to commercialisation in order to qualify, Lander explains. Cleaning commercial shipping provided that opportunity. “By keeping a ship’s hull clean of biofouling, we can significantly improve fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as limit the potential Demand for keeping ships’ hulls clear of fouling organisms is set to surge, says this developer of an uncrewed brushing system. Peter Donaldson reports Smooth sailing June/July 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Armach’s Hull Service Robot ready to clean a cruise ship’s hull, showing thrusters, rubber tracks, brush head and the power/ command and control tether (Images courtesy of Armach Robotics)
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