  The periodic inspection of vessels is a fundamental task to ensure their
integrity and avoid maritime accidents. Currently, these inspections represent
a high cost for the ship owner, in addition to the danger that this kind of
hostile environment entails for the surveyors. In these situations, robotic
platforms turn out to be useful not only for safety reasons, but also to reduce
vessel downtimes and simplify the inspection procedures. Under this context, in
this paper we report on the evaluation of a new control architecture devised to
drive an aerial platform during these inspection procedures. The control
architecture, based on an extensive use of behaviour-based high-level control,
implements visual inspection-oriented functionalities, while releases the
operator from the complexities of inspection flights and ensures the integrity
of the platform. Apart from the control software, the full system comprises a
multi-rotor platform equipped with a suitable set of sensors to permit
teleporting the surveyor to the areas that need inspection. The paper provides
an extensive set of testing results in different scenarios, under different
operational conditions and over real vessels, in order to demonstrate the
suitability of the platform for this kind of tasks.
