Maritime AI Topic
AI Hull Inspection and Fouling: News
Drones, crawlers and underwater robots now inspect hulls, tanks and coatings, with AI reading the images. We follow which ones are in service, what they find, and whether class and surveyors accept the result.
Latest stories on hull inspection
From the AI at Sea weekly digest. This list updates with every new issue.
1 November 2026
A Japanese Owner Sends AI Drones to Look for Rust on Its HullToei Kisen, a Japanese shipowner, will test an AI drone system for hull inspection from November, on one of its own ships. The system comes from…
13 September 2026
Nauticus Sells Autonomy You Can Bolt Onto the ROV You Already OwnMost subsea autonomy pitches start by asking you to replace your fleet. Nauticus Robotics has released ToolKITT, which starts from the opposite…
28 June 2026
From Hull Steel to Orbit: AI Robotics and Edge-AI Push Into the Physical Maritime WorldTwo funding-and-deployment signals this week show AI moving out of the back office and into the physical maritime world — one reading the steel of…
7 June 2026
DNV's Steel Load Planner Now Builds a Safe Cargo Plan in Five Minutes — and Runs on 100+ ShipsDNV used Posidonia to launch version 2.0 of its Steel Load Planner on 3 June, adding AI that automatically generates an optimised steel-coil loading…
3 May 2026
ABS and Fleet Robotics Partner on Autonomous Hull-Resident Robots for Continuous Cleaning and InspectionThe American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and Fleet Robotics signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Singapore Maritime Week 2026 to collaborate…
3 May 2026
Bubble Robotics Raises $5M Pre-Seed for Autonomous Underwater Robots Targeting Offshore and Maritime InfrastructureUK-based Bubble Robotics, founded in 2025 out of the Entrepreneurs First accelerator programme, has raised a US$5 million pre-seed round led by…
26 April 2026
MPA Singapore Selects Six Partners for SGD$3.7M Robotic In-Water Hull Inspection and Cleaning Innovation TrialsThe Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore has selected six partners under its Call for Proposals to advance and scale up in-water hull inspection…
29 March 2026
IQUA Robotics Proves Autonomous Underwater Drones Can Inspect Ship Hulls Without Divers or Tethered RobotsSpanish robotics firm IQUA Robotics has successfully completed proof-of-concept trials demonstrating that autonomous underwater vehicles can conduct…
22 February 2026
Seaspan Shipyards Invests $1.5M in Robotics to Automate Blast and Paint OperationsSeaspan Shipyards awarded a $1.5 million contract to Alberta-based Confined Space Robotics (CSR) on February 12, 2026 to develop and integrate…
4 January 2026
ScrubMarine Raises £740k for Autonomous Hull-Cleaning RoboticsUK maritime robotics startup ScrubMarine closed a £740k (~$1M) pre-seed funding round in December 2025 to develop autonomous hull-cleaning robots…
14 December 2025
Ardmore Shipping Deploys SteelCorr AI Corrosion Monitoring Across Entire FleetArdmore Shipping Corporation announced November 26, 2025 fleet-wide deployment of SteelCorr's AI-powered corrosion monitoring and paint maintenance…
24 August 2025
Underwater Inspection Drones Achieve Fleet-Wide Commercial DeploymentAutonomous underwater inspection drones have transitioned from trials to fleet-wide deployment in 2025, with systems like Seasam HullScan delivering…
17 August 2025
Underwater Inspection Drones Transform Hull Maintenance OperationsAdvanced underwater ROVs are revolutionizing hull inspections as of August 2025, eliminating diver risks while achieving 300% increases in lateral…
3 May 2025
Robots Tackle Bio‑Fouling—No Dry‑Dock RequiredGreensea IQ introduced its EverClean hull‑inspection robot at Ocean Business 2025. The magnetic crawler lives permanently on the hull, using…