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This paper presents the GOYA Project, a teleoperated system for blasting applied to hull cleaning in ship maintenance. The objective of the project is to develop a reliable and cost effective technology regarding hull grit blasting, obtaining a high quality surface preparation together with a dramatic reduction of waste and zero emissions to environment. Present technology for hull cleaning and the problematic in shipbuilding industry are analysed. Selection of blasting technologies and materials is also approached in this paper, showing the different tests carried out to achieve a hull surface cleanliness of SA 2 ½. The desing of the robot is also presented, showing aspects of mechanical, control unit, teleoperation system and blasting head design. It also shows the consecution of a smooth hull surface and the reduction of operation costs atmospheric contamination. It also eliminates the hard working conditions of the operators in the present manual operation. This work is supported by the Spanish government and the European Union (CICYT-FEDER) and is tested in BAZAN Co. ; The authors want to acknowledge the Spanish government and European Communities for CICYT-FEDER support (1FD97-0823). Additional funds support from BAZAN and Spanish Ministry of Industry (ATYCA).

Human operators use tele-operated service robots for performing more or less hazardous operations (manipulation of heavy and/or dangerous products) in more or less hostile environments (nuclear reactors, space missions, warehouses, etc). Anyway, independently of the operation, the robot has to interact with both the environment it is working on and with human operators. Therefore, it is essential that the design (which include both software and hardware) of the robot involves no risk, or at least an acceptable level of risk, neither for the operators, nor for the environment nor for the robot itself. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to make a system free of failures in its design or operation. Apart from the risk inherent to the use of the mechanisms themselves, these systems work in hazardous environments, where the probability of the risk is higher than normal. Should a failure happen, its consequences could even involve the loss of human lives. (Neumann, 1994) documents many cases of computer-related failures, such as the Therac-25 (a radiation-therapy device), the missiles shield in Saudi Arabia, etc. Nevertheless, safety aspects are seldom included in the early phases of the system design process from the beginning, even though they are a critic aspect. Generally, safety has to conform and adapt to the already designed system and not vice versa, when it is widely known that safety involves not only the design of the software but also the hardware. Even more, a simple hardware solution can eliminate a hazard or simplify the software design in many situations. ; This research has been funded by the Spanish CICYT project MEDWSA (TIN2006-15175- C05-02) and the Regional Government of Murcia Séneca Program (02998-PI-05).

Embedded computer control systems rely on software for performing their functions. These systems are essentially real-time systems and traditionally the research on these systems has been focused on functionality and performance. However, quality attributes as modifiability, portability, etc. are very important for developing high quality computer control software. One way of rising high quality is based on the study of software architectures. In this work, we present the followed process to obtain a reference architecture of a robot controller for a teleoperated service robot. To achieve this goal, we have followed an architecture-based development process using UML, a standard notation for the design of static and dynamic properties of systems. ; This work has been supported by the Spanish Government and European Union Programmes for Research: Electrical Power Research Program (project PIE-041049), Technological Actuation in Industry (PAUTA projects 753/95 and 53/96), EUREKA-MAINE program (TRON-EU1565), and GOYA (CICYT-FEDER 1FD97-0823).

Hull cleaning before repainting is a key operation in the maintenance of ships. For more than a decade, a means to improve this operation has been sought through robotization and the use of different techniques such as grit blasting and ultra high pressure water jetting. Despite this, it continues to be standard practice in shipyards that this process is carried out manually. This paper presents a family of robots that aims to offer important improvements to the process as well as satisfying, to a great extent, all the operative requirements of efficiency, security, and respect for the environment that shipyards nowadays demand. It is described the family of devices with emphasis on the mechanical design. This set consists of two vertical robotic towers and a robot climber. In addition, it is shown the control architecture of the global system. Finally, operative results are presented together with a comparison between the performance achieved in shipyards through the use of these robots and those obtained with a manual process. ; The work submitted here has been developed within the framework of the "EFTCoR: Environmentally Friendly and Cost-Effective Technology for Coating Removal (EFTCoR)" project, Fifth Frame Programme of the European Community (ref. GRD2-2001-50004). It has also received financing from the Spanish government (national plan of I + D + I, PET 2008-0131 and MEDWSA-TIN2006-5175-CO5-O2) and from the Government of the Region of Murcia (Séneca Foundation).