a fully laden capesize bulk carrier with an 18 m draft
Four Hours to Clean a Loaded Capesize Hull With an Underwater ROV
How a fully laden capesize bulk carrier with an 18 m draft had its full hull cleaned in four hours by a remotely operated underwater robot in Singapore.
- 4 hours
- Time to clean the full hull by remote underwater robot
- 10x
- Faster than traditional methods, per company estimate
- 18 m
- Draft of the fully laden capesize during cleaning
Based on a documented real-world deployment. Figures are from public reporting; the organization is not named.
A loaded hull that was hard to clean on schedule
A fully laden capesize bulk carrier with an 18 m draft rides low in the water, and its hull is the kind of surface that a normal cleaning window struggles to accommodate. Large bulk carriers earn their keep by moving cargo, so every day spent alongside for maintenance is a day the ship is not carrying freight.
Scheduling a clean for a vessel like this means matching port time, cargo operations and weather. The window tends to be narrow, and the work has to fit around the ship rather than the other way round. Fouling that builds up while a loaded ship waits its turn is the problem the operator had to solve.
- Deep draft puts much of the hull out of easy reach
- Cargo operations and port time leave narrow cleaning windows
- Moving water makes diver work near a large hull demanding
Bringing in a remotely operated underwater robot
The job was carried out by a remotely operated underwater vehicle working the hull under control from a surface station. Because the robot does the hands on work, the ship's crew and the cleaning team could keep their attention on the operation rather than on divers in the water.
The robot supplier reports that the vehicle was extensively tested in the anchorage before the commercial job, and that deployment from alongside the ship to the start of cleaning was quick. Those operating details come from the supplier's own account.
- Mobilize the vehicle and its support equipment alongside the ship
- Clean the full hull under remote control in one continuous operation
- Hand over the cleaned hull and the operating record to the owner
Four hours for a full hull, company reported
The headline figure is four hours to clean the full hull of a fully laden capesize with an 18 m draft. The robot supplier put that time on record, so it is the operator's own measurement rather than an independent audit, and it describes one vessel on one occasion.
The supplier also describes the robot as roughly 10 times faster than traditional methods. That is a company estimate, not a measured head to head comparison on the same ship, and it should be read as the supplier's view of the speed gap.
For an owner, the number that matters is the length of the window. A full hull cleaned in hours, rather than a multi day job, is a schedule the operation can plan around, and that is the practical gain the account points to.
What this means for businesses weighing a robot
Service Robot Co. is a vendor neutral robot integrator for US businesses. We are not a marine contractor and we had no part in this vessel job. The lesson that carries over is about fit: a robot that performs well in one setting still needs a site assessment mapping the work, a clear deployment plan and a service team behind it.
We select robots across manufacturers, then arrange robot leasing for business on a three year lease with one fixed payment quoted after a site assessment. We handle deployment and integration, train staff, and service every unit through our nationwide US engineer network, so a customer deals with one partner and one number.
Other companies work this field too. As of this review, Neptune Robotics lists ROV hull cleaning services at more than 60 ports, Singapore among them, on its website, and its own announcements describe its robots as suited to strong currents. Comparing options like these on their merits is part of choosing well.