Cargill and Neptune Robotics have begun an 18-month trial of robotic hull cleaning and inspection on vessels calling at the Port of Singapore, adding a major ship operator to a government-backed program testing maritime automation under live conditions.
The companies said in a November 2 announcement that Neptune will provide its remotely operated cleaning systems for Cargill vessels. The work is part of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore’s in-water hull inspection and cleaning innovation program.
Neptune was one of six technology providers selected by the authority in April. The MPA said at the time that the six partners would receive close to S$3.7 million in research and development co-funding from the Maritime Innovation and Technology Fund to develop and trial robotic inspection and cleaning systems in Singapore port waters.
Trial will measure cleaning and fuel performance
Under the new partnership, the companies will test AI-enabled remotely operated vehicles for hull cleaning, use robot-generated data to assess hull conditions, and compare vessel performance before and after cleaning. The evaluation will cover operating procedures, cleaning efficiency and the usefulness of inspection data, with fuel savings among the outcomes to be measured.
Cargill will provide vessels, operational experience and feedback on Neptune’s next-generation robots, software and vision-language-action models. The two companies said they have worked together for more than four years, but the latest agreement puts that relationship inside the MPA trial framework.
Removing biofouling can reduce hydrodynamic drag, but the partners have not published fuel-savings results from the Singapore trial. The release cited research associated with the International Maritime Organization indicating that biofouling can materially increase fuel consumption and emissions depending on vessel condition. The current program is intended to generate operating evidence rather than assume a fixed saving in advance.
Independent maritime publications including Smart Maritime Network and Digital Ship also reported the 18-month trial and its focus on cleaning efficiency, hull-condition data and fuel performance.
Singapore provides a live test bed
The MPA program was established to validate in-water inspection and cleaning technologies in a high-traffic port while assessing safety, efficiency, cost and environmental effects. The authority selected the six partners after receiving 19 proposals from 36 companies across nine countries.
Neptune says its services are available in 61 ports across Singapore and China and that its systems can operate in currents and murky water. Those capability and market-coverage figures are company-supplied. The Singapore trial will provide a regulated setting for testing how the technology performs on Cargill’s dry-bulk fleet and whether operating data supports broader deployment.