We develop the HullROVER, a new lightweight robot for cost-effective cleaning of ship hulls under water. Biofouling on ships increases fuel consumption and introduces alien species into ports worldwide, even though all ships use antifouling paints. HullROVER delivers an immediate reduction in energy consumption in maritime transport, a sector that is already struggling increasing costs of fossil fuels and which must - over the next decades - transit to use even more expensive zero-emission sustainable fuels. Our solution lowers shipping’s negative impact on biodiversity and global warming, and improves on diver safety. 

Our technological approach is to further develop proven equipment from other applications and connect these in the overall technology and software for HullROVER. Our ROV is based on a commercially available magnetic robot fitted with our brush based cleaning unit developed through a collaboration with LITEHAUZ ApS. HullROVER is supported by the Danish Ecoinnovation Fund and the Danish Maritime Fund.

The market challenge for existing suppliers of robots for underwater cleaning is that the equipment is very capital intensive and the manufacturers have therefore been forced to establish themselves as suppliers of the service. This limits the spread of IWC robots to a few traffic nodes and a limited section of shipping (primarily container ships). Our robot uses a number of off-the-shelf products in new and significantly simpler ways. It is therefore 50-60% cheaper than other cleaning robots, which is financially affordable for the many existing diver-based providers of underwater cleaning worldwide.

We expect that the global market for hull cleaning in the coming decade will grow several hundred percent with new IMO and EU regulations on energy consumption in ships and through shipping's green transition.

HULLROVER ApS

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