Since its inception in the early 1950’s Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV’s) have become hugely important in many industries such as offshore renewables, oil and gas, defence and underwater exploration. This started in 1953 with the first un-manned vehicle, produced by Dimitri Rebikoff. It was used for the location and documentation of sites which would have been far too harsh an environment for divers to reach. Since then innovation has helped to make the world of ROV’s far safer and much more efficient.
ROV Classification
Since their development in the early
1950’s there has been a range of technological developments in these vehicles,
which has led to the following categorisation:
First Stages of Innovation
During the late 1950’s and early
1960’s the American navy became interested in the subsea world and diverted
additional resources to investigating the advantage of ROV’s. This began with
the development of the Cable-controlled Undersea Recovery Vehicle (CURV) in the
early 1960’s. The first of these was the XN-3 and was used for inspecting the
seafloor with the aim of retrieving torpedoes which had been used in tests and
training. One of the more notable achievements of these original systems was
the retrieval of one of the Mk28 hydrogen bombs that was dropped during the
1966 Palomares B-52 crash. This alone
took almost 90 days from finding the hydrogen bomb underwater to retrieving it
and bringing it to the surface. The military still use many of these systems
for a range of practices such as mine hunting and mine breaking.
Oil and Gas Use
Usage in the military world aside,
remotely operated vehicles have become synonymous with the oil and gas sector. The
need for these vehicles has since become integral to the industry with many of
the offshore oil fields now too deep for human divers to access. As the years
have progressed, ROV’s have become more and more advanced with each new model
of ROV that is brought out. For example, many companies have developed
technology which allow for the vehicles to manoeuvring around subsea
installations and check for faults in pipelines and subsea structures or
perform tasks like turning valves on and off. As will be explored later on, the
future of ROV and its technology is rapidly changing, and innovation is still constantly
occurring, allowing for further developments in the subsea sector.
Scientific Use
As ROV’s allow exploration in areas
of the ocean where a diver cannot go, they have tremendous value to the
scientific community. ROV’s have been used for the inspection of the ocean
floor and submerged archaeological sites. Their main purpose is for capturing
and transmitting data from the vehicle to the surface. This will allow for
scientists to explore underwater areas that previously they were unable to and
allow for more of the subsea world to become known mid ocean ridges and black
smokers spring to mind.
One of the most famous examples of ROV aiding the scientific world is the use of the machine, Argo in the discovery of shipwrecks. Dr Robert Ballard used an underwater video camera to document the exploration of both the Titanic and Bismarck shipwrecks. An autonomous vehicle located U Boat 166 in the Gulf of Mexico in 2003 during. More recently the Mardis Gras shipwreck was discovered by using this technology to explore some 4,000 feet underwater. This wreck was untouched for over 200 years and its 2007 discovery was a breakthrough for historians and proved an innovative use for ROV’s. This was the deepest underwater archaeological project that was ever attempted in the Gulf of Mexico.
Moving Forward
As has been noted, the world of ROV
technology is constantly changing so it comes as no surprise that many of the
recent developments are pioneering in the field. The new standard of vehicles allows
for a range of tasks to be undertaken and seemingly there is no project that
can be considered too advanced. was previously mentioned AUV’s are
ground-breaking in terms of the subsea world, allowing for far bigger and longer-term
tasks to be carried out, due to the lack of human control needed. For example,
underwater vehicles have been developed which allows for large-scale mapping of
the subsea world. A team in Norway have
recently developed an autonomous robot which has mapped over 120,000km of the seabed!
The advancement in this technology means
that the need for human control is negated, allowing for better allocation of
human resources to projects that require a skilled ROV operator.
Conclusion
To conclude, this article has shown that the world of ROV has had a long and
interesting story to the present day. With
the world of subsea technology constantly improving there is seemingly no limit
to the potential innovation for this technology.
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