The ROV Pontus - A winning design

This paper describes the ROV Pontus, built by the Eastern Edge Robotics Team for the 2008 MATE International ROV Competition. The process of building the ROV and traveling to the MATE Competition cost approximately $60,000, including the value of donated materials. Two pontoons connected by high density polyethylene (HDPE) frames are the basis of the chassis, which also has four 24 V thrusters and a stereoscopic camera. The chassis has two latches to hold and lift an ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) platform, and a thermistor to record temperature of a venting fluid. The control system was programmed in C# and runs using seven threads that sample data continuously. The ROV has an onboard electronics system that is inside polycarbonate housing connected to the surface using a custom-built tether. The topsides electronics consists of a joystick and a control unit.