Controlling in real-time an ASV-carried ROV for quay wall and ship hull inspection through wireless links in harbor environments

Inspection of quay walls and ship hulls is necessary to assess the status of the structure, identifying potential deterioration which may compromise the safety of port and ship operations. The RoboVaaS project aims at reducing the level of human support required to accomplish these tasks by making use of an ASV-carried ROV equipped with multiple cameras and sensors. In this work, we focus on the challenges related to the communication systems needed to ensure the proper information exchange between the ROV, operating underwater, and the shore station. Notably, we propose to rely on the existing port cellular infrastructure and evaluate the end-to-end system performance considering different network configurations (including both 4G and 5G deployments) and system parameters.