The largest vessel in the Royal Dutch Navy’s fleet recently became the first ship to have its hull cleaned with robot technology.
Dutch company Fleet Cleaner announced that the Karel Doorman cleaning was a trial completed in December 2016.
The company removed the fouling of the vessel using a hull cleaning ROV that performed both under- and above water cleaning.
Fleet Cleaner said the system is able to clean a vessel during loading and unloading in ports. Due to loading and unloading, up to 20% of the fouled surface can be above the waterline in port, the company noted.
According to the company, all removed fouling is captured by the ROV and filtered by the support system, resulting in an environmental friendly hull cleaning solution.