TECH TALK: A Guide to Underwater Lingo

Baffled by underwater techno-babble? No problemheres the insiders guide to Underwater Lingo. ROV stands for Remotely Operated Vehicle. These unoccupied underwater robots are controlled by an operator (or pilot) on board a ship or, in our case, students at the side of the swimming pool. Underwater robots are regularly referred to as vehicles, as in Remotely Operated Vehicles. They can be as small as a shoebox or as large as a pickup truck. MATE competition ROVs are about the size of a two-drawer filing cabinet.

Tether: This is the cable that carries electrical signals running between the operators control panel and the underwater robot. A tether is a mixed blessingit provides large amounts of convenient power and carries significant quantities of data, but the tethers mass, stiffness and length all impede the motion of the ROV. A large tether is often called an umbilical. Mission: Underwater vehicles of all kinds have specific work they are expected to accomplish. This is their missionhopefully its not impossible! Payload: Every ROV is equipped with a range of equipment, called a payload, that is designed to accomplish its intended mission. Small eyeball ROVs may carry only a camera and lights, to provide on-site monitoring. More sophisticated equipment includes navigation instruments that detect and record the vehicles depth, direction, and geographic position, sensors that measure water clarity, light penetration, salinity and temperature or sonar that can survey the ocean bottom to locate lost ships or downed aircraft. Often payload instruments on larger workclass ROVs are mounted on interchangeable tool sleds, depending on the mission.

Manipulators: These are the human-like arms and hands, or grabbers, that collect samples, repair equipment or retrieve objects underwater, depending on the ROVs mission. The manips are remotely controlled by the pilot at the surface. Joystick: The ROV pilot uses a joystick (or control switches) in combination with the vehicles camera and video monitor to maneuver the ROV underwater. The view from the camera lens is displayed topside on the pilots monitor. Signals from the joystick pass down the tether to control the ROVs actions and payload instruments. Thrusters: These are the motors (most often with propellers) that provide thrust, or movement, for the ROV. Usually an underwater vehicle has a number of carefully placed thrusters to provide good directional control. Why are ROVs important? Simply put, ROVs let us explore the ocean depths first-hand often going to places too deep or too dangerous for humans. Although large, sophisticated workclass ROVs can be extremely costly, they are generally less expensive to build and operate than submersibles carrying humans. Today ROVs handle a surprising variety of underwater work at all depths. These jobs include: general oceanographic research and environmental surveys (collecting samples and recording data) oil and gas exploration and production (pipeline inspection/ repair and structural testing of offshore platforms) laying telecommunication cables underwater construction underwater archaeology and treasure hunting location and recovery of items (from murder weapons to downed aircraft) dangerous inspections of dams or nuclear reactor facilities Just like commercial ROVs, each year the underwater vehicles in the MATE Center/MTS Committee ROV Competition are challenged to tasks based on actual missions that ROVs undertake in the working world. For example, a previous international ROV competition missions have focused on how ROVs are used to deploy, install, and maintain equipment associated with ocean observing systems. Teams designed and built vehicles to deploy and network instruments for power and communications as well as recover instruments for maintenance and repair. The teams also prepared technical reports, poster displays, and engineering presentations, where they described their vehicle and its systems to a panel of industry professionals.

In this way, MATEs ROV competitions help students to develop technical, problem solving, and teamwork skills and allow them to see the real-world applications of what they are learning in the classroom and have fun while doing it!