Should I even attempt this? And Hello!

Other than control. (Navigation, Sonar, Ect.)
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Special~k
Posts: 2
Joined: Apr 29th, 2015, 5:20 pm

Should I even attempt this? And Hello!

Post by Special~k »

Hello all, my name is Kenny and this is my first post. I am a SONAR specialist for a survey company out of south Louisiana. I just finished designing a new tripod for our BV5000 3D sonar, and my boss mentioned how he wished we had an ROV for search and recovery purposes. The wheel started turning and a quick "DIY ROV" lead me here. I've done quite a bit of reading, but have yet to find anything about how much weight you guys have been able to handle. I am totally new to this, so I have yet to learn about buoyancy and whatnot. My sonar set up is pretty small, so I dont think size will be an issue as long as I stick to one of the bigger frames I have seen on here. My question is, do you guys think its worth attempting this? The sonar weighs 21.7lbs dry, and 8.2lbs wet. Is weight simply a matter of adding buoyancy? I figured I would post this and get some insight from the experts while I am doing my research. I am very interested in hearing what think. Thanks in advance!
COMMonGround
Posts: 1
Joined: Apr 30th, 2015, 9:29 am

Re: Should I even attempt this? And Hello!

Post by COMMonGround »

As far as buoyancy and weight go, you can bulk up all you want. As long as you have a buoyant force counter acting the gravity force acting on the heavy items you are fine. An ROV is usually "neutrally buoyant" which means it will neither sink nor float because it has enough buoyant mass (air, foam, ect.) to keep the heavy mass (sonar equipment) from sinking, but not too much floating so that it just chills at the surface not doing anything. If you can master neutral buoyancy then your only problem is propulsion, the greater the mass of the object (even though it doesn't sink your ROV can still be very heavy) the stronger your drive motors will have to be to move that mass around. In the end, simple trial and error is the best method play with floats and weights to balance the forces, and try different motors and propellers.
Best of Luck! :D
Special~k
Posts: 2
Joined: Apr 29th, 2015, 5:20 pm

Re: Should I even attempt this? And Hello!

Post by Special~k »

COMMonGround wrote:As far as buoyancy and weight go, you can bulk up all you want. As long as you have a buoyant force counter acting the gravity force acting on the heavy items you are fine. An ROV is usually "neutrally buoyant" which means it will neither sink nor float because it has enough buoyant mass (air, foam, ect.) to keep the heavy mass (sonar equipment) from sinking, but not too much floating so that it just chills at the surface not doing anything. If you can master neutral buoyancy then your only problem is propulsion, the greater the mass of the object (even though it doesn't sink your ROV can still be very heavy) the stronger your drive motors will have to be to move that mass around. In the end, simple trial and error is the best method play with floats and weights to balance the forces, and try different motors and propellers.
Best of Luck! :D
Much appreciated! That's what I was thinking... just counter act the weight and make sure its centered. Pretty sure I've got the green light to do this, now I need to negotiate my budget limit hehe. This is going to be fun...

Thanks for the info!
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