Autonomous Navigation for the Hull Bug Ship Hull Grooming System

The underpinning science and sensing associated with autonomous navigation is advancing on numerous fronts. The navigation capability required for ship hull grooming in a low visibility environment is a natural application of this technology. Enormous benefit will be realized in the public and private sectors of the shipping industry. The economic and environmental impact realized using proactive ship hull grooming will benefit society through reduced fuel cost, reduced greenhouse gas emission, and reduction in the transport of aquatic invasive species. The process of autonomously navigating a crawler on a ship hull will take advantage of the constrained nature of this motion and the closed form surface of the hull. Inertial, acoustic, and optical sensors will support the application of simultaneous localization and mapping methods (SLAM) optimized for this sparse feature environment. Methods of initial mission planning, and re-routing when confronted by obstacles, will allow for the grooming of an unknown hull. The results of the initial grooming will provide a baseline model of the hull for further review and mission planning, which will be utilized in the numerous future grooming cycles on that hull.