As far as I know, There isn’t any guides/resources on ROV piloting. I bought 2 books about ROVs in order to try to learn about piloting, but I still had to teach myself everything I know. I have thought about making a few videos showing the tips that I have learned, but haven’t gotten around to doing it.
I actually filmed a quick demonstration on avoiding “Blast Off” last weekend since I was getting some more external views of the ROV with a GoPro on a tripod. Should have the video clip up soon. I might re-film it next weekend with a higher gain setting for a more dramatic effect.
Jumping in to add some extra thoughts to this discussion,
This would definitely be extremely valuable for a lot of newcomers, but ideally much of it could be covered with an interactive guided simulation - especially if it included things like visibility reduction when the bottom gets hit, and the process of finding and following a tether to untangle it and/or return home.
That’s understandably a fair amount of work for someone to develop, but many of the operating fundamentals are consistent across a variety of vehicle designs and types, so it’s also something that could stand up well through time, without needing frequent updates.
If something like that was done openly then different people or companies could even contribute add-on modules to cover the specifics of their vehicle, or a peripheral type, or just general topic they have expertise in. Definitely seems like a space that could benefit from some collaborative effort, with significant payoff to the community
I think the distinction here is that climbing is a very embodied activity, whereas most of the embodied part of ROV piloting (besides deployment+retrieval, of course) is largely independent of whether the vehicle involved is real or simulated, since you’re not physically down in the water with it.
I would agree that interactivity is important for effective learning though. A training manual or video doesn’t stick nearly as well as having to actually experience and solve problems yourself, and get a feel for the controls.
