New and Interested in the Hobby

[Kipper]

Hello,

For a while now I’ve toyed with the thought of building an ROV. I’m an Engineering undergraduate in Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech, and I’m considering AUV’s/ROV’s as a career path. Only thing is, with no significant experience on the water or in the industry, it’s a big leap to go from land lubber to sea dog only through a college course.

Up till now, for all the theory I’ve learned, I’ve had little practical application of my knowledge. I’m an engineer with nothing to engineer, and its driving me nuts. So, flush with birthday funds and facing a summer without anything to really get in the way, I’ve decided to set some time aside to really research and learn the details behind building an ROV. At the least I’d like to build an observation class ROV. Nothing too fancy since I’m still starting out, but enough to get the basic idea behind how to build one of these things. If it goes well, I’ll get fancy with a more sophisticated design, but I’m willing to work up to that point first.

I know I’ll build this system for freshwater operation. I’ve got a pond large enough to dive in, and deeper rivers nearby if I want to experiment with currents.

My goal really is to gain a better sense of my engineering abilities. Maybe once this is built, I’ll have something to demonstrate to potential employers that I have the wherewithal to learn the craft. Plus, I’ll be able to explore the bottom of the pond and play paparazzi with the fish.

For now, I’ll be crawling the forums and web links here to see what I can do given my funds and my experience level. I’ll post questions when I have them, and I’ll document my project as I go.

Looking forward to getting to know you all!

[Kipper]

Oops, I meant to post this in the Introduction threads. Sorry about that. If any admins come by could you relocate this? Thanks!

[fryslan76]

welcome Kipper.