Prove Your Hull's Condition — Without a Diver in the Water.
A 9 kg micro-ROV flies the underwater hull from the quay, an anchorage or the vessel itself — no diving spread, no dry-dock, no lost trading days. As it goes, AI image segmentation classifies biofouling and coating damage at over 98% accuracy, and where you need it the survey is delivered to certified In-Water Survey standard. The evidence that turns a fouling prediction into a cleaning decision.
Everything a diver survey gives you — without the diver
A commercial diving spread is slow to mobilise, expensive, weather- and safety-constrained, and only as consistent as the diver's judgement at the end of a long shift. A micro-ROV removes every one of those limits.
- Personnel in the water — a real safety exposure to plan and insure
- Diving spread and support to mobilise — often days of notice
- Costly, and easily delayed by weather, current or visibility
- Findings depend on a diver's eye and a hand-written report
- Hard to compare like-for-like inspection to inspection
- Safe — nobody underwater, no diving risk to manage
- Fast — a 9 kg ROV launches in minutes from quay, anchorage or the ship
- Up to 50% cheaper than a conventional diver survey
- Objective — AI segmentation classifies fouling & coating damage consistently
- Comparable — every survey is stored and quantified for trend over time
From quayside to decision in four steps
No dry-dock, no dive team — a single operator and a micro-ROV turn a hull into structured, classified data.
Mobilise
The 9 kg ROV is unpacked and launched from a quay, an anchorage or directly off the vessel — minutes, not days. No support vessel, no diving spread.
Fly the hull
The pilot flies a full underwater track — flats, bilge, boot-top, sea-chests, rudder and propeller — capturing high-resolution video of the whole wetted surface.
AI segmentation
AI image segmentation detects and classifies biofouling and coating damage live at over 98% accuracy — consistent, repeatable and free of end-of-shift fatigue.
Report & decide
Footage and findings are filed into the Hull-Sight platform as a structured report — ready for the cleaning decision, the owner, or a classification society.
In the water in minutes, from anywhere you can reach the hull
Because the system is small enough to carry and launch by hand, an inspection no longer waits on a dive team's schedule or a docking slot. Survey a hull during a routine port call, at anchor between cargoes, or wherever the vessel sits — and keep it trading.
- No dry-dock and no diving spread to coordinate
- Full underwater coverage — hull, running gear, sea-chests & rudder
- Repeatable track, so each survey compares cleanly to the last
What the pilot sees, in the water
A frame straight from the ROV's camera mid-survey: lights on the hull, the wetted surface in view, and a clear track over the plating. This is the raw evidence the AI then classifies — the same footage that lands in the report and, where required, supports the class in-water survey.
- High-resolution video of the actual hull, not a sampled spot
- Lit, stabilised passes — even in low-visibility water
- Every frame timestamped and filed against the vessel
The ROV sees it. The AI grades it.
Raw footage is only half the answer. Vesselity's AI turns hours of video into classified, quantified hull condition you can act on and compare.
Over 98% detection accuracy — on every frame, every time
As the ROV flies, AI image segmentation overlays and classifies what it sees — slime, weed and shell fouling, and damage or breakdown in the coating itself. The same model judges every hull the same way, so a "moderate" reading this quarter means the same thing next quarter, across the whole fleet.
- Classifies biofouling by type and extent
- Flags coating damage and surface breakdown
- Quantifies condition into structured, comparable data
- Feeds straight back into Hull-Sight's fouling-risk model
Why grading the fouling matters — the fuel penalty climbs fast
The point of classifying fouling rather than just spotting it is that the cost is not all-or-nothing. A thin film already adds drag, and it gets far steeper as weed and shell take hold — so knowing what is on the hull, and how much, is what decides whether a clean pays for itself now or can wait.
- Light slime / microfouling — adds roughly +1–4% fuel
- Macrofouling (weed) — adds roughly +4–7% fuel
- Barnacles & hard shell — adds more than +8% fuel
Clean the right hull, at the right time, on proof
A prediction tells you which hull to worry about; a survey proves it. With objective, dated evidence of hull condition you stop cleaning hulls that don't need it and stop burning fuel on hulls that do — and you have a defensible record behind every CII and efficiency decision.
A survey you can file, share and compare
Every inspection lands in the Hull-Sight platform, so a vessel's whole underwater history sits in one record — not scattered across video files and PDFs.
🎥 Full underwater footage
High-resolution video of the complete wetted surface — hull, running gear, sea-chests and rudder — stored against the vessel.
🤖 AI-classified findings
Biofouling and coating condition detected and graded at over 98% accuracy, turned into structured, comparable data.
📝 Structured report
A clean, automated inspection report ready for technical managers, owners or a classification society — no manual assembly.
| Platform | 9 kg micro-ROV — flown on the Blueye platform SepcoTech distributes |
| Launch from | Quay, anchorage or the vessel — no dry-dock |
| Coverage | Full hull, running gear, sea-chests & rudder |
| Analysis | AI image segmentation — biofouling & coating damage, >98% accuracy |
| Deliverables | Footage, classified findings & structured report in Hull-Sight |
| Class option | Deliverable to certified In-Water Survey (IWS) standard |
Already accepted by class — more than once
The strongest proof that a diver-free survey holds up is an independent classification society signing one off. That has now happened.
A class survey carried out entirely by ROV
The flagship case was the Scandlines ferry Schleswig-Holstein on the Puttgarden–Rødby crossing (Germany–Denmark). Lloyd's Register awarded certification for an in-water survey conducted entirely by remotely operated vehicle — no divers in the water — completed in under four hours with a Blueye Pro micro-ROV. The vessel runs Azipod pod propulsion with no propeller shaft, and accepting a pod vessel was the regulatory novelty LR signed off.
"A landmark moment for classification and maritime digitalisation."— Lloyd's Register, on the remote ROV in-water survey
Scandlines' first class certificate without divers
Scandlines Germany received its first ROV class certificate achieved without conventional divers, using a 9 kg micro-ROV system — and reported substantial savings versus a conventional diver survey.
"50 percent and more costs saved compared to conventional divers."— Reported outcome, Scandlines Germany ROV survey
Case details as reported by Vesselity and partners — Lloyd's Register In-Water Survey, Puttgarden, 21 Sep 2023; Scandlines' first ROV intermediate class certificate, 26 Sep 2023. Certification was carried out by the respective classification society; an IWS deliverable is offered where a vessel's class and survey regime allow. Source: Lloyd's Register.
When you need to know what's really on the hull
An inspection earns its keep wherever a cleaning decision, a class deadline or a fuel figure depends on the hull's true condition.
Ship Owners
Verify hull condition before a clean, a docking or a sale — and avoid paying for cleaning a hull that doesn't need it yet.
Fleet & Technical Managers
Confirm a high-risk prediction with hard evidence, then schedule cleaning and class surveys on fact across the fleet.
Ferry & Ro-Ro Operators
Inspect between tight, repeated rotations without losing a slot — and meet in-water survey requirements without dry-docking.
Class & Compliance
Satisfy an in-water survey requirement to certified IWS standard, with a defensible, repeatable record behind it.
Micro-ROV Inspection — FAQ
What exactly is a micro-ROV hull inspection?
How much cheaper is it than a diver survey?
Can it satisfy a classification in-water survey?
What do I actually receive?
Do I need the Hull-Sight platform to book a survey?
Who supplies it, and where?
Vesselity, in motion
Two short brand reels from the official Vesselity channel — an overview of the hull-performance mission rather than a step-by-step survey demo.
Book a diver-free hull inspection
Tell us the vessel and the port, and whether you need a certified In-Water Survey, and we'll quote a micro-ROV inspection — one-off or recurring.
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