Having focused on green ship maintenance, Chinese innovation is setting sail in the Persian Gulf! Recently, AKA Robotics successfully implemented its WallHiker W-06 ultra high pressure water blasting robot in shipyard in the United Arab Emirates, marking a significant shift from traditional open-air sandblasting. This innovative solution offers a green, automated, and dust-free method for removing rust and paint, particularly suited for high-temperature environments, bringing a new era of low-carbon transformation to ship repair facilities along the Gulf coast.

The United Arab Emirates, with its world-class ports like Jebel Ali and Khalifa, serves as a central hub for the Middle East’s shipbuilding industry. The region boasts an annual ship repair exceeding 570 vessels, encompassing large liquid and gas carriers (VLCCs and LNG tankers), as well as a vast number of tugboats, landing barges, and small-to-medium-sized support vessels.

The local environmental regulatory framework is stringent, and traditional open-air grit blasting methods pose a significant risk of dust pollution. Furthermore, the Gulf region experiences extreme heat during the summer months, leading to surface temperatures on vessels that far exceed human tolerance levels. This creates a high risk of heat stress for workers performing outdoor, elevated-height tasks. Consequently, environmentally friendly and automated ship surface preparation solutions are now a critical need in the industry.

The WallHiker W-06 robot is an independently developed, fully articulated, self-adapting robotic system for wall-climbing, paint and rust removal. It can switch to an automated operating mode, eliminating the need for workers to perform high-altitude, outdoor operations, thereby avoiding the risks of heatstroke and falls associated with such work. Its core performance is specifically designed for ship repair in Middle East.

• Strong curvature adaptation – minimum curvature radius of 0.5 meters, achieving 98% surface coverage, enabling smooth coverage of complex hull structures such as the bow and stern.
• High-clearance capability – capable of traversing obstacles up to 25mm, smoothly navigating welds, drainage holes, and ship markings, ensuring continuous operation.
• High-quality rust removal – featuring a 300 MPa ultra-high-pressure water jet, achieving a blasting grade of Wa2.5, meeting international marine coating standards.
• The greening process utilizes a high-pressure, no-abrasive water blasting technique, replacing traditional sandblasting. This method eliminates dust pollution at the source and complies with multiple local environmental regulations.

Prior to this, the WallHiker W-06 has been successfully implemented in several ship repair companies in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, demonstrating its ability to deliver a complete, ready-to-use solution in challenging overseas environments with limited on-site infrastructure and diverse ship designs. This project in the United Arab Emirates marks a significant step for AKA Robotics expansion into the core Gulf region, following its successful entry into the Southeast Asian market.

From domestic ship repair facilities, expanding into Southeast Asia, and then venturing into the Persian Gulf, AKA Robotics continues to export its domestically-developed specialized robotics technology to the global shipping market.

Ship blasting and cleaning is a typical high-risk, high-pollution process in the shipping industry. Utilizing intelligent magnetic crawler robots, “safe operation and green production” practices are being introduced to overseas markets, providing a practical Chinese technical solution for the global shipbuilding industry’s green transition.

Clean environment, safe operations. WallHiker W-06 is currently writing the next chapter in the story of Chinese specialized robots in the Persian Gulf.