Maritime Vessel Tank Inspection using Aerial Robots: Experience from the field and dataset release

TL;DR

This paper reports on deploying aerial robots for autonomous inspection of ship ballast tanks, highlighting field experiences, challenges, and a new dataset to advance research in autonomous maritime inspection.

Contribution

It introduces a system for autonomous vessel tank inspection with lessons learned from real deployments and releases a comprehensive dataset for future research.

Findings

Successful autonomous exploration in 3 ships across 7 tank types

Insights into navigation challenges in dark, dusty environments

Dataset release to support further development in maritime robotics

Abstract

This paper presents field results and lessons learned from the deployment of aerial robots inside ship ballast tanks. Vessel tanks including ballast tanks and cargo holds present dark, dusty environments having simultaneously very narrow openings and wide open spaces that create several challenges for autonomous navigation and inspection operations. We present a system for vessel tank inspection using an aerial robot along with its autonomy modules. We show the results of autonomous exploration and visual inspection in 3 ships spanning across 7 distinct types of sections of the ballast tanks. Additionally, we comment on the lessons learned from the field and possible directions for future work. Finally, we release a dataset consisting of the data from these missions along with data collected with a handheld sensor stick.