The US Navy's Fleet is Offering New Work to a Robot Designed for Scaling Ships
A robot from Gecko Robotics is being used to clean the exterior of a Navy vessel. (View the video from Gecko Robotics to see the robot in action.)
Pennsylvania company Gecko Robotics has revealed that its hull-scaling robot, which can identify structural issues, has been adopted by the US Navy. The military force will now utilize the technology on the first amphibious assault vessel and one more destroyer from the Arleigh Burke-class.
The CEO of the company stated in a press release that they are happy to use their advanced technology which has been evaluated and authenticated by Navy technical leaders and sustainment officials. The Navy has a crucial responsibility and Gecko will support them by ensuring they have the necessary tools to execute their tasks securely and efficiently in today's constantly evolving geopolitical scenario.
The value of the project and the ships that the company has been contracted to examine were not revealed in their official statement. The Navy representative declined to comment on the declaration when approached by Breaking Defense.
Gecko is a company that started in 2013. They create and manufacture robots that can climb up a ship's hull to discover and anticipate areas where the ship may have problems with its structure. The robot used by the United States Navy weighs 50 pounds.
The Pentagon has implemented a plan called "predictive maintenance" to prevent major issues by detecting them early. Despite the Navy's aspirations to utilize this approach, they have encountered differing degrees of success in decreasing the duration of ships' time spent in harbor.
Gecko representatives revealed to Breaking Defense during an interview that their robots can gather a significantly greater amount of data from a single vessel within the same timeframe with only one or two operators, compared to the work of over twelve shipyard workers working together.
Ed Bryner, who is the director of engineering of the company, stated that the scarcity of workers is a crucial factor in why robots are incredibly important in the dry dock environment. He shared that it usually takes a group of 10 to 15 people four days to gather 3,000 data points by laboriously doing it manually. However, with the use of a robot and two individuals, they were able to collect over 8 million data points in an even shorter amount of time.
According to Loosararian and Bryner, their robots don't clean the whole ship. Instead, the Navy tells them which specific areas to focus on, like the flight deck, ballast tanks, or rudders, depending on the situation. The robot scans the assigned area and utilizes different technologies to create a digital copy of the ship, which is then modeled on a computer. Through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Gecko's program alerts shipyard workers about any problematic areas that need their attention.
The corporation mentioned that it has mainly focused on building destroyers before, a few of which were located in Japan, and has been conversing with the military regarding constructing submarines. A spokesperson from the company disclosed that they have already examined six naval vessels previously, aside from the two discussed in the recent update.
Regarding the entire Pentagon, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office revealed that the military services were instructed to implement "predictive maintenance" over two decades ago. However, progress has been quite limited until recently.
According to the watchdog organization, the GAO, there is an issue with the adoption and tracking of predictive maintenance in the military services. The solution to this issue is for the military services to create plans for implementing predictive maintenance and establish clear goals and objectives for each weapon system. By doing this, they will be able to determine the best way to implement predictive maintenance effectively.
