[Tyler]

US Navy's Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming Robot
     


The US Navy is trying to save some money by making their ships more
fuel efficient. Keeping a ship's hull free of barnacles, oysters, algae,
and other marine life can decrease fuel consumption by up to 40 percent
and increase speed by 10 percent. To do the job of cleaning, or
"grooming", a vessel's hull, the Office of Naval Research has developed
the Bio-inspired Underwater
Grooming (BUG) robot (PDF format). The BUG is an autonomous robot
that uses negative pressure vortex regenerative fluid movement (which
civilians refer to as "suction") to stick to the hull of a ship. Four
wheels drive it forward while sensors including biofilm detectors and
flourometers allow it to avoid obstacles and
plan paths that will take it toward fouled surfaces. The Navy hopes BUGs
will be online by 2015, saving up $500 million in maintenance costs per
ship while reducing the Navy's carbon footprint. The robot could also be
used on non-military ships and yachts. For more info, see the ONR news
release.
   

http://robots.net/article/2922.html