DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF AN UNDERWATER REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLE (ROV)

ABSTRACTS

The sea and its vast resources make up an unlimited environment for man to exploit and harness. Considering the numerous activities on-going at sea such as transport, defence, energy exploration and scientific experimentation amongst others, it has become necessary to innovate cheap and effective technologies for the support of these activities. One of such technologies is the Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV). The project designed an ROV to be used for underwater inspection of pipelines and survey of ship’s hull below the water line. The design consists of a closed structured PVC framed vessel of 0.11m diameter and a total length of 0.73m mounted with camera and thrusters. The ROV achieved a maximum speed of 2m/s and dived at the rate of 1.1765 m/s to a depth lower than 10m when tested in a controlled environment. The maneuvering and station keeping characteristics were observed and found to be effective; in that, it propelled the ROV forward, downward and left/right conveniently. The source of power for the ROV is a 12v DC rechargeable battery. The ROV dives by powering the downward thruster and surfaces with or without power due to the nearly neutral buoyant force. It is controlled by 2 toggle switches; one for diving and surfacing while the remaining 1 is used for forward movement and turning left or right. This innovation can be used in comparatively shallow water in the maritime industry particularly for the inspection of pipelines and survey of ship’s hull below the water line.