Design of Light Weight-Low Cost Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle

Abstract Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROV) currently have been utilized for scientific and commercial applications. Many industries are involved in developing robots in order to reduce human effort as well as increase productivity, efficiency, and monitoring. That said, the need to optimize the cost for design of ROVs became popular. In the present work, a simplified design procedure of a low cost-light-weight ROV is proposed. The design overview includes a description of the three thrusters operated by bilge pump electric motors. The ROV contains only a camera, an IMU and a GPS sensor. The ROV is wired to a control station that is equipped with a screen with a GUI, a joystick and a keyboard to monitor and control the ROV. The design is optimized to achieve a neutral buoyancy force in order to reduce the stabilizing effort during operation, hence reducing energy consumption. The drag force, lift force, drag center, lift center and fluid velocity contours are predicted using a CFD tool. Dynamic analysis including thrust and drag forces in longitudinal, vertical and yaw directions of motion are investigated to facilitate selection of the prime movers. Finally, the control strategy and electrical system description is presented. The proposed methodology proved that a satisfactory performance with an optimized design is achievable. The ROV design presented could be used in quick and low cost inspection of ships.