First ROV build, any comments on this design?

Ill be building my first rov, aiming for the 100-150m depth range. Some blue rov electronics, but my own thrusters, and my own various other electronics, anyway this is the design ive settled with, does anything see any glaring potential issues ive overlooked? the main hull is 6" diameter, and the battery tubes below are 3". The 4 thrusters should give a decent payload as well as self leveling if i grab anything with the future manipulator. I went with 2 rear mount thrusters but ive designed the frame with mounting locations for vectored thrusters in the future if i want to go that direction (da dum tis). But anyway id just like your opinions, frame is HDPE and main body is either pvc or aluminum, havent decided yet

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Hi @troydej, welcome to the forum! :slight_smile:

Looks like an interesting design. Have you considered much with respect to the net vehicle buoyancy, and the desired movement speed(s)? It seems like you don’t have any buoyancy foam at the moment, in which case

  • that’s either not shown/hasn’t been considered, or
  • you’re planning for the enclosures to provide sufficient buoyancy themselves, or
  • the vehicle will only be operating in very dense liquid (e.g. the dead sea), or
  • the vertical thrusters will need to make up for the difference (i.e. the vehicle is intended to sink, and requires actuation/pulling the tether to get back to the surface)

Noice

You might need some ribbing in there, and/or quite thick material for the walls. Our 6" Acrylic Enclosure Tubes look to be a bit shorter than yours, and we only rate them to 65m depth. You might want to take a look at Under Pressure when determining the enclosure specifics, if you haven’t already :slight_smile:

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