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Remotely Operated Tanker Inspection System II (ROTIS II)

Objective

The disasters of ERIKA on December 1999 and PRESTIGE last November have put once more in evidence the importance of periodic ship inspection and credibility of such assessment. To date, maritime vessel inspection is based on:
(a) close-up visual inspection and
(b) steel plate thickness measurements. Prior to inspection a ship must be made fully available at the harbour area, all access spaces must be made safe (de-gassed etc) and prepared accordingly, often in dry dock, thus resulting in a considerable ship idle time and, consequently, a significant cost. In the case of big, double hull tankers it can easily amount to multiples of $100,000.The introduction of double hull vessels is widely seen as the response to the need of preventing maritime catastrophes such as the one of the PRESTIGE oil tanker. However, to be effective, it must be coupled with measures towards more efficient and cost effective inspection procedures. Adequate tools must be provided to the surveyors, ship owners, as well as to state and port authorities providing them with the capacity to perform, through diagnostic or tale-operated equipment, rapid but safe and reliable inspections. The object of the present proposal is the follow-up of the successful ROTIS project (completed in June2002). Based on the experience and the sound basis of the first prototype, it aims at the specification, design and implementation of a new ROTIS II prototype that will meet all the requirements of the endures as well as the particular safety and operational specifications. More in particular, ROTIS II project will cover a significant research effort to:
*) Correct / meet certain technical issues identified on the first ROTIS prototype (in particular its size and shape).
*) Significantly enhance all ROTIS functionalities implementing advanced control techniques to automate certain tasks, incorporating advanced supervisory techniques that will integrate all available sensor#

Call for proposal

FP6-2002-TRANSPORT-1
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Coordinator

TECNOMARE SPA - SOCIETA PER LO SVILUPPO DELLE TECNOLOGIE MARINE
EU contribution
No data
Address
San Marco 3584
VENEZIA
Italy

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Total cost
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Participants (6)