Remote Operated Vehicle (R.O.V)
An ROV is a Remote Operated Vehicle. They can be used for multiple applications in the air, sea and on land. A few aspects that allows the ROV to relate into Engineering are: Construction, design, innovation, success and challenges. Throughout this project my group and I had many ideas such as creating individual ROVs for each of us and having our own modifications on them. The reality is that we would have needed more time and materials to achieve this. The ROV project has impacted my view on environmental engineering by allowing me to realize that robotics, programming and building all are tied into this. Before I had this class, all I thought that was done was research and writing about weather, global warming and anything that affects the environment in general. A few challenges that came up while in the process of building and modifying the ROV were figuring out modifications that could be completed within the time of the project and being able to float. As we tested our ROV for the first time, it had too much buoyancy which in turn would not allow the motor which submerged the vehicle under water to do its job. The modifications were both a challenge and my favorite part of this project. We really only had a week or two in order to figure out which modification we were going to do and actually make it. My modification is a webcam which I waterproofed inside of a plastic casing so that we have vision while submerged under water. The one big shining moment was when my group was the first group of our entire team to finish building our initial ROV which meant that we were awarded a robotic arm which would be attached to the vehicle. Another shining moment that I can remember is when we actually got the ROV driving and articulating under water. During this project I spent a few weeks helping create the basic ROV structure from PVC and creating my own modification. During the process of the project I feel that I have learned more about why we essentially are using robots to explore the deep sea along with coral reefs. They are used because there are no risks for humans involved and can dive deeper. These both greatly contribute to exploring damaged coral reefs both along the coast and deep under the water. Instead of sending a human into a potentially dangerous reef with no knowledge of what aquatic animals inhabit it or how dangerous the reef is, an ROV can be deployed to take pictures and explore a research scene ahead of time.