February 26, 2026
Adaptive autonomous biofouling robot with operational intelligent environmental perception and data analysis for environmentally friendly shipping - LABROID
A cleaning robot is being developed at the University of Kassel that will be able to clean the hull of a ship while it is sailing. In the LABROID project, this robot platform is being expanded to include two technical components that will make it possible to shorten the cleaning interval to such an extent that commercial ships can completely dispense with biocide-containing paints while still being protected against biofouling.
The first technical component comprises a patented wing system combined with a self-aware control approach. The wing system enables the robot to cover its entire energy requirements from the flow of water around the moving ship. This allows continuous cleaning 24/7. The self-aware approach integrates the wing system into the robot control system and enables autonomous evaluation of the environmental conditions based on the operating parameters. This significantly reduces the risk of failure, enabling reliable protection against fouling.
In the second technical component, computer vision is used to assess the current fouling level so that the robot can independently recognize and learn which areas need to be cleaned and which should no longer be cleaned. Independent assessment of the fouling level is crucial and a unique selling point, as only a biofilm slime layer may be cleaned during operation. The robot must therefore be able to distinguish between the stages "clean", "slime layer", and "macroscopic fouling". Dr. Brill + Partner Institute for Antifouling and Biocorrosion will train the AI as "expert annotators" in this project. To this end, numerous underwater photos will be evaluated and specific fouling plates will be deployed and evaluated in order to obtain and evaluate new underwater photos.
LABROID is inspired by the cleaner fish "Labroides dimidiatus", which uses the flow of water around its host fish to move and rid it of parasites.
Project partner:
Universität Kassel, Maschinenbau - Intelligent Embedded Systems
Briese Schiffahrt
Larabicus
Support measure:
