North robot is making waves all over world

Apr 16 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

A ROBOT which was created at a North East university to remove slime from the hulls of ships has attracted commercial interest from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand after being showcased at an overseas convention.

Hismar was developed at Newcastle University to clean underwater plants and sea creatures from the bottom of ships, helping them to travel more easily through the water and cutting their fuel consumption.

The robot, which is able to navigate itself across the ship’s hull, also stops living organisms from one part of the world being transported to another by ships.

The project remains in the prototype stage but has already gained interest from a number of parties from all over the world after showcasing at the Shipbuilding, Machinery and Marine Technology fair in Hamburg late last year.

According to its creators, there is commercial interest from sources in Australia and New Zealand where government authorities are increasing pressure on shipping firms to reduce their carbon footprint and impact on marine ecosystems.

The EU-funded technology has also caught the attention of several companies in Europe including one from Poland and recently attracted representatives from the US Government’s Office of Naval Research in London to the region for a fact-finding visit.

Newcastle University’s Jonathan Heslop, a researcher on the project, said the robot could eventually lead to a commercial spin-out from the institute, although its market launch could be at least a year and a half away.

He said: “After the Hamburg fair there was a lot of interest from a number of bodies from around the world. There has been interest from the military, industrial companies and manufacturing companies – it went down really well.

“We are still testing certain elements of it and it could be up to two years before we have a sellable product.”

The robot, which is currently being tested on a disused ship in the river Wear at Sunderland, was developed with the help of several overseas partners.

Companies involved in the project include Graal Tech of Italy, TechnoVeritas of Portugal and Robosoft – a French company which has developed a robot to clean the glass pyramid outside The Louvre in Paris.

The robot works by being attached to the ship’s side with magnets and then, armed with a pre-drawn map of the hull’s thickness, its rivets and indentations, follows a planned route and cleans as it goes.

Adjustable jets of pressurised sea water blast the slime off the surface of the ship before it is sucked up into a main chamber.

Inside 150 litres of water a minute is filtered and chemicals are removed to be rendered harmless to the environment.

The ship’s robotic vacuum can continuously roam the ship’s hull, preventing the build-up of slime and solving the problem of harmful, non-indigenous species being transferred to local waters, such as the Asian clam and zebra mussels which are now colonising Europe and parts of the US and out-competing native species.