Innovation > Projects
SleekShip
Partners : QCELL, TWI HELAS, M.Danchor, Danaos Shipping
AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION FOR THE INSPECTION AND CLEANING OF BIOFOULING ON SHIPS
The accumulation of biofouling on hulls significantly alters the hydrodynamics of ships, while increasing drag, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and favours the transport of invasive species.
The solution developed under Sleekship will quantify the state of biofouling development while targeting the areas to be cleaned by combining a semi-autonomous underwater robot, a new cavitation cleaning tool and a hyperspectral imaging system. The latter takes over from video inspection, which is insufficient for effective pre-assessment due to the backscattering of light caused by suspended particles in the water of the ponds.
By enabling service providers to reliably detect the early stages of biofouling development in contaminated harbors, SleekShip is expected to generate savings of more than €3 billion over five years after launch in the global shipping industry.
THE MINI TORTUGA
HYPERSPECTRAL CAMERA
CAVITATION CLEANING TOOL
INNOVATIVE
SleekShip combines hyperspectral
imaging and cavitation cleaning.
ECONOMIC
SleekShip reduces cleaning costs by up
to 2 times compared to conventional
methods.
SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY
By using a semi-autonomous robot,
SleekShip significantly reduces the
risks for operators while increasing the
daily working time.
SIMPLE AND INTUITIVE
User-friendly, the Sleekship solution
has been designed for operators to
ensure mission efficiency.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 950854.
