GOYA - a tele-operated system for blasting applied to ships maintenance

This paper presents the GOYA Project, a teleoperated system for blasting applied to hull cleaning in ship maintenance. The objective of the project is to develop a reliable and cost effective technology regarding hull grit blasting, obtaining a high duality surface preparation together with a dramatic reduction of waste and zero emissions to environment. Present technology for hull cleaning and the problematic in shipbuilding industry are analysed. Selection of blasting technologies and materials is also approached in this paper, showing the different tests carried out to achieve a hull surface cleanliness of SA 2 1/2. The desing of the robot is also presented, showing aspects of mechanical design, control unit, teleoperation system and blasting head design. It also shows the consecution of a smooth hull surface and the reduction of operation costs atmospheric contamination. It also eliminates the hard working conditions of the operators in the present manual operation. This work is supported by the Spanish government and the European Union (CICYT-FEDER) and is tested in BAZAN Co.