Bureau Veritas (BV), a world leader in testing, inspection, and certification, has successfully completed, together with MaDfly – Marine Drone Services - a service provider, the first full in-water ship’s hull survey with a mini ROV on Brittany Ferries’ ship “BRETAGNE”.
The survey, which was supervised by Bureau Veritas on behalf of the French Flag, provided an opportunity to validate the integrity of the entire ship’s hull’s bottom. Efficient underwater inspections of shipping vessels are playing an increasingly important role for the industry as a substitute for docking surveys at agreed intervals or occasional surveys of hull damage.
Brittany-Ferries has always invested in research and development and this partnership is a success. This underwater inspection with a mini ROV demonstrated the technical relevance of this method and reduced the inspection time
Arnaud Le Poulichet, Technical Director Brittany Ferries
This inspection was the first of its kind – the test survey was performed twice. A remotely operated drone performed an in-water survey with a BV surveyor on-board the vessel. In parallel, Bureau Veritas tested the capability with its own remote inspection solutions using full HD live video footage from MaDfly. This enabled BV to carry out the survey remotely without any attended surveyor on-board with live streaming, as well as video and audio recording and photo options.
Bureau Veritas has noted the following benefits of using this system:
- Safer operations as divers do not have to be in the water
- Reduction in preparation time - with a single operator and limited equipment
- High quality pictures from the drones
- Reduced risk of disturbance to ship operations
MaDfly CEO, Thierry Guillot, commented: “MaDfly’s team is delighted to be the first company in the world to achieve a vessel survey with a mini ROV for Bureau Veritas. Even more for a Brittany Ferries’ vessel as they supported us from the very first day. New technologies are improving daily to achieve more and more maintenance services in a safer and more cost effective way.”
