Remotely operated underwater vehicle
ROVs can also carry tooling packages for undertaking specific tasks such as pull-in and connection of flexible flowlines and umbilicals, and component replacement.
[2] This meaning is different from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the air because ROVs are designed specifically to function in underwater environments, where conditions such as high pressure, limited visibility, and the effects of buoyancy and water currents pose unique challenges.
While land and aerial vehicles use wireless communication for control, ROVs typically rely on a physical connection, such as a tether or umbilical cable, to transmit power, video, and data signals, ensuring reliable operation even at great depths.
The pump is then used for propulsion and to power equipment such as torque tools and manipulator arms where electric motors would be too difficult to implement subsea.
The U.S. Navy funded most of the early ROV technology development in the 1960s into what was then named a "Cable-Controlled Underwater Recovery Vehicle" (CURV).
This created the capability to perform deep-sea rescue operation and recover objects from the ocean floor, such as a nuclear bomb lost in the Mediterranean Sea after the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash.
During the mid-1980s the marine ROV industry suffered from serious stagnation in technological development caused in part by a drop in the price of oil and a global economic recession.
[11] Submersible ROVs have been used to identify many historic shipwrecks, including the RMS Titanic, the Bismarck, USS Yorktown, the SM U-111, and SS Central America.
Work-class ROVs are built with a large flotation pack on top of an aluminium chassis to provide the necessary buoyancy to perform a variety of tasks.
Survey ROVs (also known as "eyeballs"), although smaller than workclass, often have comparable performance with regard to the ability to hold position in currents, and often carry similar tools and equipment - lighting, cameras, sonar, ultra-short baseline (USBL) beacon, Raman spectrometer,[21] and strobe flasher depending on the payload capability of the vehicle and the needs of the user.
The AN/BLQ-11 autonomous unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) is designed for covert mine countermeasure capability and can be launched from certain submarines.
[26] During August 19, 2011, a Boeing-made robotic submarine dubbed Echo Ranger was being tested for possible use by the U.S. military to stalk enemy waters, patrol local harbors for national security threats and scour ocean floors to detect environmental hazards.
Useful for a variety of underwater inspection tasks such as explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), meteorology, port security, mine countermeasures (MCM), and maritime intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR).
A number of deep sea animals and plants have been discovered or studied in their natural environment through the use of ROVs; examples include the jellyfish Stellamedusa ventana and the eel-like halosaurs.
For these purposes, it is equipped with a single- and multibeam sonar, spectroradiometer, manipulator, fluorometer, conductivity/ temperature/depth (salinity measurement) (CTD), optode, and UV-spectrometer.
MBARI's Tiburon vehicle cost over $6 million US dollars to develop and is used primarily for midwater and hydrothermal research on the West Coast of the US.
[41] The SeaPerch Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) educational program is an educational tool and kit that allows elementary, middle, and high-school students to construct a simple, remotely operated underwater vehicle, from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe and other readily made materials.
The "Mardi Gras Shipwreck" sank some 200 years ago about 35 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico in 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) of water.
The shipwreck, whose real identity remains a mystery, lay forgotten at the bottom of the sea until it was discovered in 2002 by an oilfield inspection crew working for the Okeanos Gas Gathering Company (OGGC).
In May 2007, an expedition, led by Texas A&M University and funded by OGGC under an agreement with the Minerals Management Service (now BOEM), was launched to undertake the deepest scientific archaeological excavation ever attempted at that time to study the site on the seafloor and recover artifacts for eventual public display in the Louisiana State Museum.
The competition uses realistic ROV-based missions that simulate a high-performance workplace environment, focusing on a different theme that exposes students to many different aspects of marine-related technical skills and occupations.
[47] As cameras and sensors have evolved and vehicles have become more agile and simple to pilot, ROVs have become popular particularly with documentary filmmakers due to their ability to access deep, dangerous, and confined areas unattainable by divers.
[72] ROVs have been used in the filming of several documentaries, including Nat Geo's Shark Men and The Dark Secrets of the Lusitania and the BBC Wildlife Special Spy in the Huddle.
[73] Due to their extensive use by military, law enforcement, and coastguard services, ROVs have also featured in crime dramas such as the popular CBS series CSI.
This new interest in ROVs has led to the formation of many competitions, including MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education), NURC (National Underwater Robotics Challenge), and RoboSub.
