Homebuilt ROVs Forum

Hi there,
I'm currently designing a small, affordable ROV to sold as a kit or pre-made as my A level project (so will be thoroughly researching, designing and testing it). My questions to all you experienced ROVers are:

- What features are most important to an ROV?
- What would you like to see on an ROV?

Thanks, Louis

Also how should the system be set up?
How have you set up yours?

Currently I'm thinking ROV camera --> small computer, raspberry pi? --> tether --> cable reel (is another raspberry pi needed?) --> controller, and back again. How should the system be set up? what type of computer should I use?

Also what should be pre-programmed into the ROV? So far I have that it should surface if the connection to surface controller is broken (i.e. tether cable cut)

onboard power or surface power?

- louis

My wish list for a ROV:

Onboard batteries
Manipulator
Four orientation cameras: Front, back and left/right
One go-pro cam for HD-filming
LED lights (Enough Watt to use in night time)
Compass
Leak sensor onboard
Depth sensor

I have no idea on what computer to use.

Thanks Silver Dollar, I hadn't considered a leak detector.
Are you suggesting 4 equally important cameras for filming all around, or a main camera and various other cameras around to better manoeuvre in tight spaces?

On the computer I suggest to have one frame with the main front camera and a second frame to toggle the other cameras.

Another configuration is to have three cameras: Front, back and down.

I like pan and tilt for my camera. Is there any reason you prefer to have many cameras? I can see a rear view camera being useful. With a single pan and tilt wide angle camera you can see nearly straight down in a dome.

I have found that with a 108 degree lens, I don't really need pan, but I really like tilt in a dome for bottom, forward or upward scanning. A reverse camera would be nice too, maybe also in a dome and with tilt too, while we're wishing.

With a dome what material do you use? glass? perspex? acrylic? or what and where do you get it, or how to make it?

Also with a dome is there any distortion to the camera view?

My camera has a 90 degree lense and it works out pretty well with a tilt. A little wider would be nice but seems to be hard to find for inexpensive cameras.

I use a VideoRay ROV dome. It is acrylic I think and about 1/8" thick and optically clear. Calculations show it to be good to 1500'. The ROV's it is used on are rated to 1000' which is my max operating depth. You can also find optical domes from various plastics manufacturers.