A suction-based reversible attachment and locomotion mechanism for an underway vessel hull cleaning and inspection robot

The international merchant vessel fleet is in charge of carrying over 90% of the items that are traded globally. Any vessel down time brings significant additional costs to the industry. A common source of vessel downtime is the colonization of the vessel hull by marine life, known as permanent marine bio growth. Marine bio growth brings significant risks and costs associated with it, the most notable being a hull frictional drag increase, which significantly increases the annual fuel and maintenance costs of these vessels. To mitigate these risks and costs, merchant vessels such as cargo tankers undergo a thorough cleaning in a dry-dock up to twice every five years. While saving money in fuel costs and mitigating risks such as the introduction of invasive species, drydocking can cost over $2,500,000 in a five-year period.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Çobi, Alban C.(Alban Chris)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Douglas P. Hart.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127154

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127154