ITCH – In Transit Cleaning of Hulls

ITCH is a semi-autonomous hull cleaning robot tethered to a portable winch on the forecastle deck. It harvests the vessel's propulsion energy to stay attached to the hull and sweeps the vertical sides with soft brushes using a defined pattern and controlled brush forces, causing minimal wear to antifouling paint. It is designed for proactive grooming of early-stage biofouling but has also removed settled fouling. ## Key features - Hand-carried by the crew; no vessel modification required - Cleans a Handysize hull in about 5 hours while sailing - Typically covers about 80–90% of the parallel area; cannot reach the bulb, propeller or rudder by design - Integrated video camera records the hull before and after cleaning; coverage is evaluated in the ITCH application - OPEX below 250 USD per cleaning - Fouling is removed and disposed of far from shore ## Applications Proactive hull grooming on tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers and container ships. Standard operating conditions: ship speed 10–14 kn; wave height below 2 m (draft < 11 m) or below 3 m (draft > 11 m). Up to 17 knots is possible with black brushes, leeward deployment, near even keel trim and waves below 1.5 m.