University of Strathclyde and BAE Systems Plc KTP24_25 R2

A robotic crawler will soon clamber across the hulls of ships, scanning hundreds of metres of weld for hidden cracks. The problem is straightforward: maritime vessels are held together by thousands of metres of welded seams. A single undetected defect can grow into a structure-threatening failure, endangering the crew and the vessel itself. Current inspection methods are slow, labour-intensive, and often require dry-docking the ship. This project aims to build a general-purpose robotic crawler that can autonomously locate and inspect welds, even in tight or awkward spaces, without needing to remove the vessel from service. If the research succeeds, ship inspections could become faster, cheaper, and more thorough. The technology would help prevent catastrophic structural failures at sea, keeping crews safe and reducing costly downtime for repairs. It could also be adapted to inspect welds on other large metal structures—bridges, oil rigs, storage tanks—where manual inspection is dangerous or impractical. The project is applied engineering, not fundamental science; its value lies in a working prototype that industry can deploy.