Underwater Remotely Guided Vehicle

Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc. (DOEI)

San Leandro, CA

Development of an underwater remotely guided vehicle with robotic hands and a spatially correspondent stereo television system to improve pilot dexterity and the feeling of telepresence while exploring inaccessible areas

• In order to maximize the capabilities of the underwater vehicle, many innovative components were developed under the SBIR contract. These include a vehicle with a unique thruster arrangement to facilitate manipulative tasks, a spatially correspondent high velocity camera pan-and-tilt actuator, a gear-reduction drive thruster that improves vehicle maneuverability at slow speeds, a strong lightweight structural framework consisting of laminated composite of epoxy-filled glass fiber and low-strength flotation material, a pilot's chair with a head mounted viewing system and single-handed joystick controls, and a method of converting optical fiber to electrical signals in the umbilical cable termination
• Field tests of pilot dexterity with and without the telepresent control system were conducted in the final stages of the project

• The components developed under the SBIR contract were incorporated into a host of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and other products which are sold commercially. These include DOEI's ROVs for nuclear inspection, tunnel inspection, and several other specialized applications. Customers include General Electric, Framatome, Entergy, Virginia Power, Lousiana Offshore Oil Port, and many U.S. Government agencies. Accrued revenue from these sales is presently in excess of $2.2M

• The NASA underwater vehicle has been loaned to the Marine Biological Laboratory for a period of two years to study the squid fishery industry in Monterey Bay, California
• This project is being sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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