Application of Virtual Reality for Remote Ship Inspections and Surveys – A Systematic Review

The use of virtual reality for the establishment of compliance is a potential game-changer in enabling real-time remote inspections/ surveys of vessels. When provided with high-speed internet access, robots or remote-controlled inspection vehicles such as drones, crawlers, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and so on, may be equipped with remote inspection technologies (RITs), and smart optical cameras and sensor suites in conjunction with wearable technologies, and smart/ mobile devices, to carry out an aerial and underwater virtual assessment of the coating condition of the steel structural members of the vessel while transmitting the data in real-time or near real-time, via collaborative software. To ease the travel restrictions and border closures prompted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19), these novel technologies have been introduced by some flag states and classification as alternatives to traditional in-person statutory inspections/ class surveys. This study aims to employ a systematic literature review (SLR) approach to (1) classify the profiles of existing publications related to remote inspections/ surveys, (2) highlight the key thematic areas being discussed within the domain of remote inspections/ surveys and identify tasks and processes that may require virtual reality application. To the best of our knowledge, the findings have revealed that there is no existing SLR paper related to the application of remote inspection techniques in ship inspections/ surveys. However, the review retrieved 28 primary studies from the following databases: Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. Based on the results, various studies have proposed multifarious solutions to overcoming the existing technical and regulatory barriers to the mass deployment of these cutting-edge technologies.