Launched just over a year ago, the SleekShip project aims at providing a solution to a problem whose major impact is well known to shipping companies: biofouling.
This biological phenomenon is defined as the accumulation of living organisms on a surface in an aqueous environment. The development of biofouling on a ship’s hull leads to dramatical increase of drag effect and simultaneously of fuel consumption, ultimately causing financial losses due to over-consumption and maintenance operations.
Although there are now ways to effectively treat biofouling, the methods are still tedious and therefore costly, especially for large ships. Dry-docking a cargo ship, for example, not only incurs operational costs, but also losses due to “off-charter” time, i.e. time lost not cruising. In addition, late treatment may require the use of brushes and jets, resulting in damage to the hull that will need to be repaired. This is why solutions that allow for the early detection of biofouling are favoured by bodies such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO). However, early detection is almost impossible with existing methods, based on the human eye or RGB cameras.
These issues led to the creation of the SleekShip project: an all-in-one solution for biofouling detection and cleaning, using a semi-autonomous underwater vehicle equipped with a hyperspectral camera and a cavitation cleaning tool. All this is supported by an intelligent control system that allows non-expert operators using the system.
That is why we are proud to present our solution, and we invite you to bookmark this website and follow us on our social networks:
Information will be regularly updated aboutthe progress of the project and on events, when they are allowed, in which we will participate.
We thank you for your support and look forward to talking to you soon!