Page 35: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2022)

GREEN MARINE CLEAN HULLS “Death by a thousand cuts” is not generally used in a positive connotation, but when looking at the decarbonization mountain ahead, it is an apt analogy as there is no single solution that exists today, rather the cumulative work of thousands of modi? cations and innovations. The challenge ahead has and will continue to spawn innovators, such as Ben Kinnaman, founder and CEO of Greensea

Systems and its recent spin-off, Armach Robotics, driven by a mission to make maritime operations cleaner, greener and more ef? cient.

By Greg Trauthwein en Kinnaman has a solid foundation in both the Armach Robotics is Born maritime and technology worlds, an innovator Greensea Systems is a software company known for its and technologist at heart who wrote his ? rst software platform on ocean robotics primarily, but also known computer program at the age of 8, earning an for its unique navigation and autonomy solutions. The latter is undergraduate degree in Computational Phys- a core key to the Armach Robotics solution, as Kinnaman con-

B ics and eventually earning his Master’s Degree is in Mechani- tends that keeping a ship’s hull clean via robotics is not neces- cal Engineering through Johns Hopkins’ Robotics and Control sarily a mechanical solution, rather a navigation solution.

program. But he is also a ‘maritime guy’ in his soul, growing “A few years ago we started a program with the Of? ce of up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, his ? rst job at 13 Naval Research (ONR) developing a very accurate navigation working on ? shing boats and sailboats, working too as an off- solution for robots transiting on a ship hull for the purposes shore and deep ocean salvage diver. Kinnaman is the founder of proactive in-water cleaning the hulls,” said Kinnaman. and CEO of Greensea Systems, a software architecture ? rm “ONR was a pioneer in the development of proactive in-water headquartered in Richmond, VT about 15 years ago, develop- grooming of ship hulls back in the early to mid-2000s. This ing technology that addressed the relationship between man requires the insurance of a 100% coverage of the hulls, and to and machine, integrating disparate technologies into a com- be really effective and ef? cient, it needs to be a robotic solu- mon operating platform, “ultimately making the operator’s tion; and you can’t ? eld an autonomous robotic solution un- job a little bit easier and a lot more effective.” less you have an accurate navigation solution. We have an ac-

His company has grown by leaps and bounds, and earlier curate navigation technology (created working in partnership this year he launched Armach Robotics, subtly touted as “The over many years with ONR). The more we began exploring

Future of Ship Hull Maintenance,” a Robotics as a Service proactive in-water cleaning, the more opportunity we saw.” model that melds advanced software, intelligence, robotics To be clear, Greensea is not a robot manufacturer; Green- and navigation. sea is also not a service provider: Greensea develops software www.marinelink.com 35

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