Remotely Operated, Underwater Robot Will Assist in Marine Research

An underwater robot made a splash at a University of Delaware swimming pool recently in a test of the new equipment, which will soon be used in field research. Douglas Miller and Arthur Trembanis, associate professors of oceanography, tested the device's maneuverability and imaging features. The robot, called a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), has four waterproof video cameras, a sonar system which uses sound to make detailed pictures of seafloor contours, and a three-pronged arm opens and closes to grip marine samples. Sensors on the ROV record depth, date, and time with each video stream.

Transcript

00:00:05 this uh underwater exploring robot really opens up a a whole realm of research and teaching opportunities for our faculty and and for our students so this is basically a swimming uh camera and sonar system uh for us an ROV is designed to be able to move vertically horizontally and forward and back in in the water with cameras on it allow it to to see uh what's ahead of it what's

00:00:33 below it and uh a manipulator here in the front if we need to try to grab on onto something anybody who spent some time working with a remote control car or remote control plane or or played some video games uh can pick this up pretty pretty easily