Service robot for hull-blasting

Present grit blasting technology for hull cleaning is very polluting, environmentally unaffordable, and it is progressively forbidden in the most environmentally conscious countries (mainly in the north of Europe). For the time being, the above methodology has been partially substituted by ultra high-pressure water blasting; however such an approach does not show as good a performance as the grit blasting systems. This paper describes a service robot for hull blasting. The technology the authors developed consists of a cleaning head, a robot body, a remote control unit and a teleoperation platform. This solution allows reliable and cost effective operation regarding hull grit blasting, obtaining a high quality surface preparation (SA 2 1/2 ) together with a dramatic reduction of waste and zero emissions to the environment. A prototype of the robot has been developed and tested in the IZAR shipyards. The authors present the functional requirements, system concepts and architecture of this robot.