Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2019)

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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: COATINGS & CORROSION CONTROL

Above

Grooming vehicle at work.

Photo Courtesy Greensea Systems

Above Right

Two years of grooming. 6in x 12in coated panels groomed weekly (top) compared to panels left ungroomed (bottom).

Photo Courtesy Greensea Systems

Right

Autonomous hull grooming robot user interface.

Photo Courtesy Greensea Systems ing robotic solution has not yet been mission planning and autonomy soft- position on the ship hull. The entire hull Workspace also allows technicians to delivered. ware modules used for Remotely Oper- grooming system is implemented in a save and recall grooming plans, log ob-

Greensea Systems, Inc., a software ated Vehicles (ROVs). These OPENSEA vehicle-agnostic tractor skid inclusive of stacles and obstructions, and log all data company specializing in advanced navi- software modules provide the tools and the navigation and control systems, au- for archival and replay.

gation, control, and autonomy solutions capabilities for specifying a region to tonomy, sonar, and grooming tool. The Greensea’s accurate hull relative navi- for marine robotics, partnered with the groom, planning the grooming coverage, grooming skid can easily adapt to most gation solution is enabling autonomous hull-grooming team from FIT CCBC and executing an autonomous grooming commercial ROVs. Greensea is com- robots for hull applications and has made in 2017 to explore an optimal robotic operation. The operator can supervise as mercializing the system in 2019 on a hull grooming a viable alternative to in solution for hull grooming. With fund- a Subject Matter Expert (SME) or leave VideoRay MSS ROV. water cleaning that is cost effective and ing from the US Navy’s Of? ce of Naval the vehicle alone to conduct the opera- An intuitive graphical user interface environmentally responsible. Greensea

Research, the Greensea and CCBC FIT tion unassisted. The role of autonomy in developed from Greensea’s software for is commercializing the autonomous hull team ? elded a prototype robotic system the robotic grooming process is critical Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) grooming robot, as well as the enabling in 2018 that can autonomously groom a for the viability of this process due to the teams provides the communication with navigation and grooming technology, in ship’s hull with very little operator input, time required to ensure 100% coverage the robot necessary for a technician to 2019. while providing an on-hull positioning on the ship hull. plan, execute, and document the hull accuracy of less than 0.15m RMS. This To provide the navigation and auton- grooming process. The Hull Groom- Footnote: Greensea and FIT CCBC prototype system used a commercially omy capabilities for the hull grooming ing Workspace provides a view to plan would like to thank Of? ce of Naval available ROV system ? tted with a guid- robot, Greensea leveraged OPENSEA, the grooming operation by region, so- Research and DARPA for develop- ance and control system developed by their open architecture software plat- nar overlay for obstacle avoidance, and ment support on the autonomous

Greensea and a grooming brush tool de- form. The autonomous hull grooming video for complete situational aware- hull grooming robot as well as the veloped by FIT CCBC. robot uses an inertial navigation sys- ness. Graphical indicators on the screen feature-based navigation and local-

Accompanying the navigation solu- tem and a multibeam sonar to provide record the progress of the vehicle on the ization technology used by the navi- tion, Greensea utilized their advanced feature-based awareness of the robot’s hull and show the grooming swath. The gation system.

22 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • MARCH 2019

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