Cutter tooth replacement robot

Royal Boskalis, a large player in the maritime industry, maintains a fleet of multiple types of ships for dredging purposes. One particular type, the cutter suction dredger, is used to grind hard materials from the seabed. The cutter head has up to 80 teeth, each weighing up to 40 kg which need to be replaced regularly due to wear. Replacing the teeth is a manual, laborious and repetitive task generally performed by several workers in a few hours.

To aid the replacement of a dredging cutter's teeth, this study aims at developing a collaborative robot, or cobot, which reduces or eliminates safety hazards for the workers. Besides, such a cobot can also contribute to decreasing the costs of the replacement process and increasing the efficiency of the cutter suction dredger.

Requirements of the cobot include compensating gravitational force and intelligently aid in locking, grabbing and guiding the individual teeth, all whilst ensuring the safety of human operators and workers. The study will start with reviewing literature regarding collaborative robots. At the end of this MSc assignment, a prototype or a functional simulation of the cutter tooth replacement robot or a crucial aspect of it is envisaged.