Servo - September 2009

Then

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n

a

NOW

UNDERWATER REMOTELY

OPERATED VEHICLES

by Tom Carroll

The name ‘Remotely Operated Vehicles’ can really apply to any vehicle that is controlled from a distance, which can include law enforcement robots, military robots, aerial vehicles, combat robots, and even remotely-controlled boats and planes. Since the 1950s and 1960s when serious remotely-controlled underwater vehicles began to make the news, ‘ROV’ began to mean only those robotic vehicles that operated under water. Rather than going into detail about different control systems and robotic appendages on the many types of ROVs, I’d like to highlight a few different types of specialized underwater vehicles that have made worldwide headlines and what made them stand out from all the others in this unforgivable and harsh environment.

ROVs began to appear when scientists, Navy personnel, and others wanted to see beneath the waves with a remote TV camera system. Later, these same people wanted a bit more: to manipulate what they saw and retrieve samples. Thus, the birth of the ROV.

French photographer, diving instructor, marine explorer, and author of the 1955 book Free Diving, Dimitri Rebikoff is credited with building the first underwater scooter — the ‘Torpille’ — for divers in 1952. In 1953, this underwater diver’s

assistant evolved into the first modern tethered ROV called the Poodle. Earlier, Rebikoff was credited with developing the first portable photographer’s electronic flash in 1947, and also an underwater version. He later moved to the US and was a prominent figure in oceanographic instrumentation for many years before passing away in 1997.

Dimitri’s work is a good illustration of why ROVs came about. Though an avid diver, he realized that as a photographer the ability to remotely control a TV and film camera below the water’s surface would open up this unseen world to many people. Dimitri and his famous fellow countryman, Jacques Cousteau, became famous the world over for their contributions to underwater sciences and bringing views of the

underwater world to the average person.

The CURV ROV Becomes a Workhorse for the Navy

FIGURE 1. CURV.

Using remote underwater vehicles for research and photography is vital for universities and some government agencies, but their use for military purposes was a natural for the U S Navy. Visual inspection of underwater structures and vessels is important but the Navy saw an even more critical use in the recovery of torpedoes.

The Navy’s CURV or Cable-controlled Undersea Recovery Vehicle shown in Figure 1 was developed in the early 1960s by the former Pasadena Annex of the Naval

Ordnance Test Station in San Diego. The first tests were off the coast of California at San Clemente Island — a naval weapon test area. Torpedoes, as well as ship missiles, mines, and other types of shells covered the sea bottom off San Clemente Island and the CURV was adept at safely retrieving these items at depths up to 2,000 feet. CURV made world headlines in 1966 when it recovered a lost H bomb off the Spanish coast that was lost when a B- 52 bomber crashed.