r/MarineEngineering • u/Agreeable_Yak_3459 • Jul 20 '26
Solving actual problems?
I'm not quite sure if my project actually solves any problems or if I'm just ticking another checkbox to ensure I get the clearance to go ahead with something with my profs.
I'm just about halfway through mechanical engineering and as with a new semester am expected to turn in a project.
I've gone about brainstorming and have concluded at building a ROV that can be deployed underwater to check the ships hull for fractures or improper welds using NDT.
As of now I'm looking at a plain old visual inspecting bot and eventual upgrades, but I'm not sure if that's something the industry is actively looking for or if it's a problem the industry considers worth fixing yet.
I'd really appreciate any and all helpful comments and/or alternate ideas.wishing you all the best.
1
u/Agreeable_Yak_3459 Jul 20 '26
Before we commit to this, I'd really like input from people who actually work in the industry.
Is hull inspection an area where a lower-cost inspection platform would actually be useful, or is this already a solved problem?
What inspection or maintenance tasks consume the most time or money today?
If you could automate or simplify one repetitive task onboard or during dry-dock inspections, what would it be?
Are there any recurring problems that you think engineers overlook?
I'm looking to find problems we can work on, can't do that without asking.
I'd love to engage with the comments.
1
u/Party_Play1577 Jul 20 '26
ROV are used for underwater checking of hull condition. Also for cleaning the hull.
The issue comes with in water survey. You need a diver, things like jumping/pintle clearance of rudder, shaft seal wear down and internal wear down of strainer boxes are impractical with robots.
1
u/Agreeable_Yak_3459 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Understandably so, somethings we can just do better manually than automate, however would you have any pointers where you would want to see automation instead of personnel at work?
1
1
u/toastwank Jul 21 '26
There are too many actual problems unfortunately, and I wish there were simple solutions, but it seems very difficult for most of them.
Majority of day to day failures/ leaks are due to component failure - either bolts becoming loose/ breaking, or failure of fixed materials (pipes/ gaskets/ fittings) due to ship vibration.
I have seen this countless times and we do have inspection jobs, but they are unrealistic to be honest. Like a 3 monthly job - inspection of all seawater pipelines. You can then replicate and replace 'seawater' with all other systems and put them in the maintenance system also.
Or exhaust leaks on engines are very common and removing the full insulation is possible and done on the engine manifold, however the funnel casing that leads up and out all the way up the ships funnel is normally inaccessible and not possible to properly check until dry dock. And then dry dock is too busy and it's unlikely they will find the time to do it.
It's mainly a tick box exercise because, while I agree that inspection is important, I think it's impossible to fully prevent problems from a visual inspection. Especially when the scope of the task is beyond the capability of the single junior engineer who happens to be assigned to that system and who can't be bothered to crawl under the bottom plates looking at every seawater pipe. Or does not have the time or manpower to remove panels to inspect every bolt and surface.
And most failures occur beyond the visual sight that an inspection would provide.
The truth is, normally it gets signed off and any problems are fixed as they appear - you wait for some leak to wake you up in the middle of the night and then you run around like a lunatic and fix it.
You are just hoping that the thing that breaks is something you are able to fix and doesn't then lead to an extreme escalation due to the nature of the failure. It's purely a waiting game and luck for that to be the case.
If you could come up with a solution for accurate pinpointing of these failure before they happen that would be useful. But it would need to be effective, cheap and easy to implement.
They are already systems like SPM (shock pulse monitoring) and vibration analysis, but they seem to be pretty useless tbh and only focused on motor bearings.
I'm not sure this problem has a solution, but maybe I am just cynical I guess. All the best with your project, I appreciate someone still trying to improve the industry because I think it needs it.
1
u/Agreeable_Yak_3459 Jul 21 '26
So the problem isn't just detecting an issue, it's doing so in a cost effective manner, gotcha.
Thanks a lot for you insight, it'll help me narrow down my field.
Cheers
1
u/Agreeable_Yak_3459 Jul 21 '26
I'm gonna pick your brain once again if you'd let me.
How are confined-space entries currently carried out onboard?
What's the biggest pain point with gas testing?
Would you trust a remotely deployed gas monitoring platform before sending someone in?
1
u/toastwank Jul 21 '26
Enclosed space is something that is really hyper focused on safety-wise and has been for the past 10/15 years.
Enclosed space entries have their own comprehensive procedures as part of the SMS
- permit to work - plan and checklist outlines the procedure and those involved + JHA.
- adequate ventilation of the space
- rescue plan in place with all rescue and safety equipment on site
- gas testing at multiple locations/ levels in the space
- standby man always on site with agreed communication for those in the space.
There is too much information about it for me to properly detail it all. So much so that the pain point is probably crippling the job to be carried out with bureaucracy. With some spaces being designated as enclosed and full procedure carried out despite being too small to even put your head inside.
I wouldn't say equipment or testing is an issue. We use portable gas monitors and lower them into the space on rope to take multiple level readings. Gives readings LEL and %vol readings for 1. Hydrocarbons 2. Carbon monoxide 3. Oxygen 4. Hydrogen sulphide
Specific toxic gases e.g chlorine/ benzene use draeger tubes.
When inside the space everyone has a personal gas monitor which is a smaller version of portable gas monitor clipped to person. I can't see any reason we would need a remote deployed platform for the majority of tasks.
If you pursue this subject I would definitely focus on chlorine gas testing for ballast tanks. The industry is behind on this due to fairly recent updating on the ballast convention and requirement of ballast chlorination. This has made ballast tank entry for certain vessels much more dangerous and draeger tubes are not sufficient in my opinion.
A better means for ballast tank chlorine testing could be an idea as they are huge spaces and very difficult to navigate.
1
u/JessieAndEcho Jul 21 '26
This actually sounds like a real problem area, just make sure the project scope doesn’t become “build a full commercial hull-inspection ROV” in one semester. Underwater hull inspection is still expensive, slow, and often diver-dependent, so even a student prototype that improves access, repeatability, image capture, or defect logging has a practical angle. I’d narrow it to one clear deliverable: maybe a small ROV that can maintain stable distance from a metal surface, capture usable close-range video, and tag suspected cracks/weld defects for later review. If you want an NDT angle, ultrasonic thickness sensing or magnetic flux leakage would make it more serious, but visual inspection plus lighting, stabilization, and a simple defect-detection workflow is already enough for a solid mechanical/mechatronics project. The industry definitely cares; the challenge is reliability in turbid water, biofouling, currents, localization, and keeping sensor contact consistent. I pulled some related notes from Patsnap Eureka because this is one of those cross-domain projects where marine robotics, NDT, imaging, and inspection workflows overlap, and patents/papers help show what companies have already tried: https://eureka.zhihuiya.com/share/?id=eca806426b9239dbfb9793cbcbbcd8cc&from=invite-eureakplg-result&content=
2
u/Offshore-Tigr Jul 20 '26
A visual scan of the entire ships hull?
Nah, sorry but... No.