Shipping company Lomar is collaborating with Texas startup Alicia Bots to deploy its magnetic crawler robots for ship hull cleaning. Alicia's RoverClean 3.0 autonomously removes biofouling to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.

Lomar will provide ships to test expanded use cases for the robots with a grant from Singapore's Environmental Protection Agency. They plan to outfit 15 vessels with the technology.

RoverClean utilizes robotics and AI to provide safer, more efficient hull and underwater maintenance. Other applications include cargo hold cleaning, firefighting, corrosion inspection, repairs, data collection, and hull thickness measurement.

Lomar's venture arm lomarlabs will also share insights on marine robotics development, highlighting the potential of autonomous drones to reduce hazardous work.

"Our cooperation with Lomar is a confirmation of its commitment to innovation and sustainable development of the marine industry," said Alicia Bots CEO Inder Mukhopadya. "Together we are ushering in a new era of hull care, when advanced technologies such as ROVERCLEAN not only ensure that the hull is always clean, but also pave the way for a more environmentally friendly and efficient marine future."

Magnetic robots represent a growing trend of automation for dirty, dangerous jobs in marine environments. They can work continuously without fatigue, hazards or space constraints faced by human divers.

By keeping hulls clean, the tech also has sustainability benefits in line with maritime decarbonization efforts. Significant efficiencies at scale are envisioned.

Lomar's fleet integration and lomarlabs industry guidance will accelerate robotic adoption and use cases across shipping. Their partnership lends credibility and signals a vote of confidence.

The collaboration exemplifies shipping's increased openness to transformative technologies. As capabilities improve, autonomous robots are poised to considerably enhance safety, productivity and resilience in maritime operations.

"The dawn of AI has significantly changed our attitude to technology as a tool that facilitates routine operations in the marine industry," said Lomar CEO Nicholas Georgiou. - Lomar strives to support the development, development and implementation of promising technological solutions that will change our operational and environmental efficiency. In the race to create autonomous systems to support hull cleaning and other critical ship maintenance work, Alicia Bots has developed outstanding systems that provide tremendous potential to transform existing time-consuming maintenance processes with more efficient and effective AI technologies."