Performance Analysis of a Micro Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)

Abstract

Underwater Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) is a tethered marine robot that are widely employed for scientific and commercial applications. Several industries are working on underwater robots to increase the productivity, monitoring and surveillance especially in the petroleum and gas industries. These operations are often performed by human divers; however, the underwater environment poses hazards and pressure-related limits, making them costly and risky. As a result, ROVs have been designed to replace divers themselves. It is a tethered underwater robot that the operator controls manually using a PS2 controller. This project is to design and develop a micro underwater ROV for monitoring applications. The ROV are designed to withstand pressure underwater by selection of suitable material for its frame and other components will be equipped including pressure/depth sensor, MPU6050 IMU sensor and waterproof endoscope camera. Standard testing procedures are employed to assess the ROV's performance in buoyancy and control efficiency tests for the propulsion system in real environment, including laboratory pool. The developed ROV prototype shows promising performance with achieved 90% negative buoyancy is crucial for the ROV to perform effective submerge and raise operations and also with stable velocity and acceleration in forward, backward, and submerging. The steering tests highlighted that the ROV is more flexible and faster in maneuvering concerning turning performance as the horizontal thrusters’ configurations are positioned at 45° at the back of the ROV. The outcomes of this project are anticipated to bring substantial advantages to industries associated with underwater applications.