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Homebrew Underwater ROV

Posted by timothy on Sun Jul 31, 2005 12:55 AM
from the blub-blub-blub dept.
Robotics Hardware Hacking Hardware
Blue-Footed Boobie writes "A very geeky member of TechReport has built himself a homebrew Underwater ROV to use while on vacation. For what they said was 'Version 1', I would have to say the results were great. Full build log, with videos, can be found here. Good job guys! 'Being the geeks that we are, we always come up with some sort of project to bring up to the lake and play with. This year, two weeks before vacation, we decided to build an Underwater ROV. For those not familiar, an ROV is a Remotely Operated Vehicle. Generally "real" ROVs cost anywhere from $8,000 up to Millions of dollars. We had two weeks and a $100 budget. Usually they have high-resolution camera systems and high powered thrusters to maneuver. We had two weeks and a $100 budget.'"
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  • How many weeks? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2005, @12:58AM (#13206129)
    And how much was the budget?

    The writeup doesn't make it clear.

    I read the writeup. But the writeup doesn't make it clear.

    • Re:How many weeks? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Linus Torvaalds (876626) on Sunday July 31 2005, @01:19AM (#13206209)
      They had two weeks and a $100 budget.

      • Re:perhaps that was sarcasm? (Score:5, Funny)

        by milktoastman (572643) on Sunday July 31 2005, @01:26AM (#13206227)
        I think this AC was just joking about the repetitive mentioning of the time and budget constraints in the article summary. Or call it a troll, if you will. Usually that's what anonymous cowards are doing. Probably, he/she WAS just joking about the repetititive mentioning of the time and budget constraints in the article summary. Again, just joking about the repetititive mentioning of the time and budget constrainst in the article summary.
    • Is it unclear that the repetition was probably intentional? Judging by parent's post and its children, I am guessing so.

      Generally "real" ROVs cost anywhere from $8,000 up to Millions of dollars. [On the other hand] We had two weeks and a $100 budget.

      Informative. ...Usually they have high-resolution camera systems and high powered thrusters to maneuver. [On the other hand] We had two weeks and a $100 budget.

      Witty.

      MG
  • As a former submariner I would love to have one to play with, but they seem prohibitively expensive and complicated, wonder if anyone here has experience with one? Then also the thought of loosing one would be nerve racking. Not sure if you could equip a toy with an emergency blow apparatus.
    • Not sure if you could equip a toy with an emergency blow apparatus.

      Most likely you would have to give it ballast of some kind. How about an automatic release mechanism attached to the ballast attach point? It could be a simple electronic timer driving an electric motor with a pulley. String winds up on the pulley and pulls a pin which releases the ballast.

      Or just operate it with a tether until you are confident it will always come back.

      • Could something like AOL CDs or SCO lawsuits work?
        • AOL CDs would work, but you'd need a lot of them. CDs sink, but not very fast. It took a couple seconds from being inserted into a tub of water for my experimental CD to drop a couple inches to the bottom.

          On the other hand, while I don't have any to try, I have a strong feeling that the SCO lawsuits would float. Actually, I suspect they would not just float out of the pond/lake/etc. but also up into the upper atmosphere because of the quantity of hot air contained within.
        • SCO lawsuits?

          Everyone knows those have no weight to them.
      • All submersible ROVs (Remotely Operated vehicles) are tethered. Water absorbs most radio signals and light signals within a few metres. In order to get any sort of decent range (like the 100 ft mentioned in the article) you need a tether or umbilical. It is the UAVs (Underwater Autonomous Vehicles) that might need an emergency blow aparatus.
    • Not sure if you could equip a toy with an emergency blow apparatus.

      Sure you could... Heck, McGuyver could do it with a CO2 cartrige, a few pieces of ABC bubblegum, a nail and some weathered rubber bands.
    • Seems easy enough. Three ways you could do this:


      1. Motor running to a pin, holding some ballast. You trigger the motor, the motor slides the pin back, the ballast is dropped.
      2. The slightly geekier way would be to hold the ballast in place with electromagnets. The power to the electromagnets goes through a relay, which is held shut by a keepalive signal. Kill the signal (or the signal is lost for some other reason), the relay opens and the ballast is dropped.
      3. The slighty more geeky way would be to have the line running to the submersible corrigated in some way. The line runs through some toothed wheels attached to a motor. If the keepalive is lost (killed or lost signal), the ROV disconnects the control line from the computer and switches on the motor, "climbing" the control line back to the operator.

      • The slightly geekier way would be to hold the ballast in place with electromagnets.

        Be sure to bring many spares, You will drop a bunch just during "normal" dive preparations. I would consider a manual locking mechanism that is disengaged just before the dive begins. Also be sure to train any divers or swimmers to *never* go under the vehicle.

    • Re:Remote control submarines... (Score:5, Informative)

      by MeanE (469971) on Sunday July 31 2005, @01:41AM (#13206264) Homepage
      Well I have a friend who does this sort of thing (currently 200k off of Newfoundland I believe), and all the commercial ROV's he has worked with have positive buoyancy, lose power and it floats up.

      It is quite interesting stuff, he works with ones that are just simple cameras, all the way up to larger ones with multiple arms and tool attachments.

    • Not sure if you could equip a toy with an emergency blow apparatus.

      Actually, this is something that I have given a considerable amount of thought to, as I was planning on building something similar in high school.

      The mechanism would use a standard CO2 cylinder, the kind that is usually punctured with a needle and used to power pellet guns, air dusters, etc. Except instead of puncturing it with a pin (which sounded a bit too complex and prone to failure), it would be punctured using an electronically-detonat

      • The mechanism would use a standard CO2 cylinder, the kind that is usually punctured with a needle and used to power pellet guns, air dusters, etc.

        Try googling for "paintball cannon". I won't post links, but there are some detailed instructions for building a paintball cannon. The part relevant to you would be the gas release from the airchamber. Homebrew cannon often use a lawn sprinkler valve. The air chamber could be charged from a regular air compressor, but some of them use the CO2 bulb screw-in

        • Make it easier, instead of cobbling a balloon kit together, go get a inflatable life jacket (type I or II USCG) and hook it into the ROV with something to pull the release cord. Something goes wrong, the tube's inflated and the ROV rises to the surface.

          Odds are that the umbilical will get fouled and will have to be cut to free the unit so consider a simple set of shears with a high-tension spring to deal with the cord in case something should happen.
    • As a former submariner I would love to have one to play with, but they seem prohibitively expensive and complicated [...]
      My understanding, based on what I read somewhere, is that it's possible to build one yourself if you have two weeks and a $100 budget.
    • Not sure if you could equip a toy with an emergency blow apparatus.

      What about a sex toy?
    • An emergency blow apparatus is probably not enough. You may also need to detach the umbilical.

  • Real geeks know that versioning starts before 1.0 :)

  • He built an underwater ROV and posted the pictures inline so that he could find the server after the slashdotting that is on the way.

  • ROV, Without the R or O or the V (Score:3, Insightful)

    by obidonn (590065) on Sunday July 31 2005, @01:21AM (#13206217)
    Hmm, it seems like it's actually a frame with a camera inside it, that they sink and lift up. Which means it's not really Remotely Operated or a Vehicle. But really nice footage! Bluegill and perch have very cool coloring. And from growing up in Indiana I can tell you their heads even after being severed will continue gasping for air up to half an hour.

  • What ir Remotely operated here (Score:4, Insightful)

    by threaded (89367) on Sunday July 31 2005, @01:26AM (#13206231) Homepage
    This looks like a camera that has been waterproofed and fitted in a frame. Where're the thrusters, the variable balance tanks, grippers, torpedoes.

  • Stand and deliver, robot style (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2005, @01:41AM (#13206265)
    That's pretty cool, but this story about four underpriviledged high school kids from Arizona and their ROV is worth a read. With little funding and experience, they take on college students and, well, you'll see...

    http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/robot.htm l [wired.com]

  • We're building one (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dj245 (732906) on Sunday July 31 2005, @04:01AM (#13206583) Homepage
    Maine Maritime Academy [mma.edu] is building a small rover too. Someone on the team had the brilliant idea to use sump pumps for propulsion- they're submersible, they're 12v, and they take the saltwater ok. We're working with our Marine Science and Marine Bio majors and lend them the rover whenever they want it. Currently its running off a tether but hopefully we can get some sort of remote control soon. Waterproofing the batteries seems to be the hardest problem, although various Junkyard Wars shows would have me believe otherwise. This is all mostly for a Society of navel and marine engineers [sname.org] contest every year.
  • seems the site has been slashdotted. well, not the site itself, but the user hosted his images/videos on his adelphia account and it's been blocked for bandwidth reasons.
  • How much time did you have, and what was your budget?
  • I'm really tired of hearing about Bush's campaign advisor ... oh! ... never mind ...

    • Re:no sandwich tech here (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I am also hopped up on speed so I know exactly what you're talking about!
    • Whoever modded this interesting probably just plain didn't understand it and wanted to try and appear intelligent. In reality, the parent post makes no sense whatsoever -- it's output I would expect from a bot.
       
    • Maybe someone will enlighten me.
        • If you've ever watched a submarine movie, they always seem to have to surface to send a signal, gotta get the antenna above the water.

          As my second point of reference, I have a friend/client that operates his business from a 116 foot boat. About once a year, one of the notebooks on board gets dropped in the water. I can say quite definitevly that the wifi does not work when the notebook is under water.

          • not sure if u were trying to be funny here:

            I can say quite definitevly that the wifi does not work when the notebook is under water.

            but i truly doubt a notebook works underwater, not to mention the wifi. though a waterproof notebook would be interesting.
        • Wait for the customer to recognize the issue and call it a bug, offer to fix it in ROV-XP (due to be out in about two weeks, at a cost of about $100) - but you have to get this release out the door because marketing says so.

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