Ship surveys are hazardous and expensive tasks as long as they are carried out by human surveyors to a large extent. The adoption of robotic means can enhance safety by replacing some human operations, filling the gap between the current approach and available robotic technologies, even from a regulatory point of view.The ROBINS project (ROBotics technology for INspection of Ships) is a collaborative project co-funded within the H2020 EU Research and Innovation programme call, aimed at addressing the possible advantages of using robotics technology for inspection of ships, facing the corresponding challenges. In such a framework, a Testing Facility (TF) is built up and protocols are developed to test and assess robotic capabilities in carrying out inspections at least at the same quality level of humans’ ones.