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.