Carnival pilots new automated hull-cleaning robot – an environmental breakthrough for cruise?

• Carnival Cruise Line is piloting a new automated hull cleaning system.
• This new technology works with a hull cleaning robot, which operates from cameras and senses to maintain a clean hull, and prevent marine growths from forming on the hull of the ship.
• If it proves to be successful, this technology could have a hugely positive environmental impact.

Carnival has taken a big step forward in environmental and logistical innovations piloting a new underwater hull cleaning robot. 

Carnival Pride became the first ship to use this technology, a product of Jotun Hull Skating Solutions.

The technology is called the ‘HullSkater’, which gets deployed underwater and inspects and clean’s the hull of the ship. The ease of this system compared to other hull cleaning methods allows for more preventative hull cleaning, which can stop marine growths from developing. The device uses cameras and sensors to continually assess the hull of the ship, and then carry out cleaning where required. 

This is extremely important technology for a couple of reasons. The first being that marine growths on the hull of a ship greatly affect its propulsion and and efficiency in the water. A ship with growths on the hull may need as much as 25-30% more propulsion power. 

Having a thoroughly cleaned hull isn’t just good for the functioning of the ship, but also for the environment, as when a ship’s propulsion is affected it needs to consume more fuel and create more emissions to run.

Furthermore, growths on the hull of a ship can bring in invasive species or other unwanted organisms into new environments. 

We saw this as a major issue in New Zealand a few years ago, where new biosecurity rules resulted in many cruise ships being turned away from entering the country’s national parks due to having unclean hulls. Given that New Zealand is home to any fragile ecosystems, their biosecurity regulations determined that unclean hulls brought too much a risk of bringing in unwanted marine pests and invasive species. 

New technologies such as this one can aid in protecting marine environments around the world through maintaining constantly clean hulls.

Jari Oinas, AVP of fuel performance and decarbonization at Carnival Cruise Line says: “Maintaining a clean hull is essential for efficient ship operations, and the Hull Skating Solutions allows us to take a more proactive approach to hull maintenance.

“As we evaluate the technology aboard Carnival Pride, we see strong potential to support ship performance while advancing our long-term sustainability goals.”

The technology remains in a pilot phase. Carnival Pride will assess the success and data of the new technology, seeing whether it should be deployed for the rest of the fleet as well.