Design and development of Remotely Operated Vehicle for shallow waters and polar research

This paper details the design, development and qualification of a 500 m depth rated Remotely Operable Vehicle PROVe 500, intended for carrying out scientific research in shallow waters and in challenging Polar Regions. The vehicle with dimensions of 0.96 m × 0.61 m × 0.63 m and weighing 175 kg in air, is designed for a speed of 3 knots at an electric power input of 5 kW. The vehicle which is powered by 300 V DC through the 500 m length of a neutrally buoyant electro-optic umbilical communicates with the surface console through the redundant fiber optic cores of the umbilical. A real time controller on board the vehicle controls the vehicle's functions based on the commands from the surface console. The vehicle piloting is done using illuminated cameras, and the support of the navigation system realized using an in-house developed navigation algorithm, with a tuned Kalman filter with inputs from the attitude sensor and acoustic Doppler Velocity Log. The developed vehicle is tested for its hydrodynamic stability, low temperature performance in the in-house test facilities and for navigation at the Idukki Lake in Kerala, where the vehicle is navigated at a depth of 106 m at 2 knots speed with the navigation system's position error of less than 5 % in the dead reckoning mode. The vehicle is being equipped with accessories for carrying out research in Polar Regions.