Low-Cost Remotely Operated Vehicles: Effective Tools for Research Divers

Low-cost remotely operated vehicles (LCROV's), targeted in the early 1980's for offshore oil inspection tasks, have been deployed by scientists for in-situ observation and photography. Use of the free-swimming camera/vehicle systems represents a safe, economical departure from diver and manned submersible systems that have dominated undersea research since the 1960's. The basic vehicle system can be used as an alternative to divers or for diver assist to depths of 300 meters. Vehicles equipped with adapted or newly designed instrumentation and tools can fly as multi-instrument arrays for precise imaging, sampling, instrument positioning, inspection, and retrieval.