Requirements and design of a reliable network to support roboticized vessels inspections

Periodic inspections of large vessels imply complex, time-consuming and costly activities which could be greatly improved by an extensive use of automation and information and communication technologies. This paper presents the first results of the development of a networking architecture supporting roboticized semi-automatic class inspections of vessels, trying to accommodate the different specific requirements and the typical harsh environments found on-board ships. It first introduces a novel use case, then deduces requirements and finally presents an initial design for networking architecture. We started with analyzing requirements for roboticized inspection procedures, identified and collected the constraints and issues affecting communication during inspection, and performed a desktop research on state-of-the-art technologies, and finally propose an high level solution.