In International Aquafeed we have covered a variety of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for the aquaculture industry, and it always amazes me to witness how quickly such technology evolves within the industry.
One of the latest examples of a ground-breaking underwater vehicle is California-based RJE Oceanbotics™ SRV-8. This ROV is ideal for use in the aquaculture industry for net and mooring inspections as well as mort collections, with an exciting host of advanced features to boot.
When asked what they believed the ROV market was missing, Oceanbotics™ explained their goal with the SRV-8: to create an ROV that is as easy to fly as a drone, is the most maneuverable, and intuitive to allow any operator to perform a multitude of tasks in almost any underwater environment.
Oceanbotics™ successfully achieved this goal by developing RJE’s exclusive Dynamic Vector Control (DVC), advanced software smarts that command the eight vectored thrusters and enables six degrees of freedom in movement.
It is piloted using a standard Xbox controller, making the control of the SRV-8 immediately familiar to many operators. The vehicle is battery operated which removes the need for external power sources. And with the addition of external accessories such as sonar and navigation, the SRV-8 becomes an essential underwater tool.
Complex manœuvres are fluid and easily achieved with the SRV-8’s built-in 'smarts’ system; climb, pitch, ascend, descend, move left, right, forward and backward with ease by a simple thumb gesture. Even for less experienced operators the SRV-8’s precision station-keeping technology and hold functions allow the user to lock the vehicle onto a specific depth, pitch or heading angle. With these advanced functions the SRV-8 nearly flies itself.
When watching demonstrations of the ROV in action, one remarkable feature I discovered was the sheer speed with which the SRV-8 can be placed into the field and set to work. Upon arriving at the launch site, the device can be in the water in under three minutes. The operator can achieve any task from any platform using the topside box with 8.4-inch sunlight readable screen.
Read more, HERE.
The Aquaculturists
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