What is a ROV?
Remotely operated vehicles ROVs are a safe and widely used type of underwater vehicle serving a range of military, commercial, and scientific needs. Using a series of propellors, ROVs are unoccupied, highly maneuverable underwater robots operated by a person on the surface. An “umbilical” cable carries power and and control signals to the vehicle and video, status and other sensory data back to the operators. Most ROVs are equipped with at least one video camera and lights. Additional equipment may include one or more sonars, a stills camera, a manipulator or cutting arm and a wide range of sampling options. In larger systems used in current a tether management system (TMS) is used that allows the ROV to be deployed to depth using a strong but heavy umbilical cable and then flown out from the TMS using a lighter, more flexible cable. ROVs provide virtually unlimited bottom time and have high bandwidth for high-resolution video and data transmission. These systems have precise navigatio
