REDHUS Research Project

The collaborative efforts of our team, alongside our esteemed partners, DNV, Klaveness, Scout DI and NTNU have culminated in the successful completion of the Remote Drone-based Ship Hull Survey (REDHUS) project.

REDHUS is a research project funded by the Research Council of Norway that aims to develop an automated remote ship survey using drones and AI.

The project has had several sessions on board cargo ships throughout the past three years, and last year marked an extraordinary success as the final onboard tests of the research project were conducted in a real environment and identified what works and what are the areas that needs improvement.

One of the successful final tests took place onboard our shuttle tanker Lambada Spirit at Lisnave Shipyard in Portugal. The drone developed by NTNU demonstrated its capability to autonomously explore and overall inspect multiple compartments within a ballast water tank, then safely return to its starting point without previously knowing the environment. While the drone developed by Scout autonomously completed a close-up inspection within a cargo tank following a preplanned inspection path.

Safety remains to be our top priority, and this project paves the way to significantly reducing the need for human inspections in the future. With the ability to navigate through manholes and small openings, the drone also collects valuable data that is analyzed by AI algorithms to identify potential findings.

We take pride in the involvement of the Altera Shuttle Structural Integrity Team in this project, and for having played a pivotal role in the development and demonstration of innovative technologies and processes that contributes to a sustainable value creation for the maritime industry.