Telerobotic shipboard handling system

The deployment and retrieval of payloads at sea can be difficult and dangerous task, particularly in rough seas. The best method of recovering a payload would be to employ a device that mimics the human arm. Brooke Ocean Technology Ltd. (BOT) is developing a telerobotic controlled handling system operated by an intuitive controller. The system combines telerobotic control with an off-the-shelf marine crane and custom designed end effector. The operator acts as motion compensator and controls the end effector such that it is in phase with the payload during recovery. The controller is such that movement in a certain direction corresponds to an identical movement of the crane. This handling system can deploy and recover a variety of payloads including AUVs, buoys and mine disposal ROVs which are not connected to the mother ship with a cable or tether and hence cannot be recovered using conventional means. Also under development is a fast, lightweight tracking device for applications where the payload cannot be grasped and a connection to a lifting point must be made. This device, based on existing parallel robot technology, will track and automatically make a connection to the payload. The objective of this project is to integrate telerobotic control with a shipboard deployment/retrieval system in order to produce an intuitive, moderate cost system which can be used to handle a variety of payloads in rougher seas than is currently possible