Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)

 

Often I'll have more ideas than I have time or resources to bring to reality.  In these cases I will settle for laying out designs to leave for another day.  This was the case and origin of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV).  I first had ideas and created initial designs while I was young with plenty of time but few resources.  Years later a neighbor mentioned that he was interested in building a submarine or submersible vehicle.  I remembered the plans I had made, and after I found them I offered to let him take a look.  He liked my designs and I had plenty of time so I offered to help him build it and finally realize my ideas along the way.

 

Over the course of a summer we fleshed out my initial plans, procured material, manufactured parts, assembled the ROV, and tested it.  The ROV was tethered meaning that power and control signals were transferred from the command terminal via a physical cable.  This is similar to how Jason Jr. is controlled from Alvin.  Our design had double redundant thrusters and 6 axis control authority.  Neutral buoyancy was achieved through a combination of air filled tanks and removable ballast.  The main structure was a tubular space frame.  All of the subsystems were hard mounted to the frame.  We also designed and constructed the control system.  The control box allowed for thrusters to be controlled in groups or individually.  Almost all of the components were commercial off the shelf (COTS) and adapted to our use in order to minimize costs.