Homebuilt ROVs Forum

Been lurking around here for a while but finally registered.

My plan (currently not more than a plan and material gathering) is a 1x0.62m ROV.

It'll be used in freshwater, mainly lake "Vanern". Not aiming for any extreme depth (probably not deeper than 20m). Instead I plan to use it in different harbours, doing some salvage etc.
My conclusion from this is that I need an ROV that can go close to the bottom without pulling too much sediment, ability to change between a number of manipulators, have quite a bit of lifting capacity, plenty of lights/cameras and a high degree of manouverability (?).

Current ideas are:
- On board battery (2x motorcycle batteries á ~10Ah)
- Adjustable bouyancy (based on boat fenders, connected to a pressure tank (via small air compressors if needed).
- 6-8 x Bilge blower thrusters (hopefully something better further down the line)
- Fiberglass hull

I'll probably start with a simple test rig to evaluate thrusters etc. Even with suchlarge hull, it'll be a tight fit with all the tools and sensors I plan.

Looking forward to tap your brains instead of making all the mistakes myself.

/Johan

Sounds interesting. I'd like to see your ideas for your manipulators.

So many steps forward but still not started to build. I've been reading, searching, reading some more, ordered parts on eBay, bought a 3D-printer, learned to 3D-print, ordered an other 3D-printer, started doing some programming of Arduinos for the comms.

All this and nothing real to show for it. I hope this will play to my benefit when I finally start though.

Current plan is to use an old roof box (for cars) as a hull. Thrusters is currently the big question. I need a lot of thrust but not very high speed.

I will (according to current plans) work with two retractable arms. One with the main manipulator (the hand from this: http://inmoov.fr/) and one that I can change the tool on.

For communications I lean to mapping up a simple text-based protocol (much like NMEA0183) and work with "daisy-chained" arduinos (like this: http://www.wintergroundfairlands.com/20 ... tions.html)
That way I can use one pair for movement, one for manipulator, one for sensor data and one for video (all in one Cat5).

That's basically as far as I've come, hope it will speed up once I decide on thrusters and start work on the hull.

I recognize the feeling, if you are like me and got no previous experience of underwater vehicles there is so much to learn before the actual build starts if you want to have a plan and not just dive into it. Also if you sum up everything you need in terms of parts and such it's quite a lot. I have to admit in the beginning browsing the forums I was thinking, why don't people just finish up their projects and get done with it. I quickly learned that it takes a lot of time to pull of a project like this, but so far I am really enjoying it.

Whats your plan with using that many Arduinos? Lack of pins, performance or something else?

The purpose of multiple Arduinos is mainly performance (For instance the robotic hand alone will have several actuators and sensors) but also simpicity. One board - one task.
There's also an aspect of "because I can" in there...

Hej!
Detta låter intressant! Jag är i startgroparna på mitt egna projekt och undrar hur det har gått för dig?
Har du några tips och tricks?

MVH Johan

For those who doesn't spek swedish:
Hi!
This sounds interesting! I'm just about to start my own project and was wondering how things are coming along?
Got any tips and tricks?
Kind regards Johan.