Individuals who have operated AUVs, ROVs, UAVs, or ASVs understand the importance of checklists. These lists serve not only to ensure that the equipment and vehicles are in proper order but also prove invaluable during investigative processes, particularly when troubleshooting issues or analyzing incidents.
Currently there are the pre-dive and other checks listed on the BlueROV2 Operation website but I’d suggest another approach to make it more useful and accessible, especially for new ROV users.
I would suggest a new subsection on the website, which allows the creation of custom pre- and post mission checklists that could be downloaded as a PDF or other formats useful for field work.
There could be a basic pre- and post mission checklist for the most default BlueROV2 model but the dynamic (i.e. database driven) website would allow the user to select all the items that are installed on his ROV (i.e. gripper, heavy lift kit, additional sensors, sonar, etc.) and the site would then create a custom checklist for the user to use.
Add some other customization items such as:
Field for date of ROV operation
Field for location of ROV deployment
Field for number of dives
Field for signature of person going through the checklist
Field for comments
Picture of ROV to mark damages
Custom company logo
Page number (for multi page checklists)
There could be additional functionality that allows the user to add new sections for their own pre- and post mission checklists to add checklist items for custom sensors and other equipment.
The database driven approach would allow the Blue Robotics staff to add checklist items for new equipment to the database, and these additional details would then be added to the checklists.
I’ll try to post a link to some of ours - they can be quite specific with all of the different sensor load outs or mission objectives.
We also use ‘Test Cards’ during our dives, mainly to stay focused but they are also useful to gather the data needed to solve a problem, or record an experimental task. Nothing like a pre-dive hypothesis and some post-dive actionable data.
I’ll try to post some PDFs or templates if you like.
@FieldWerx pre and post dive checks are key to good operations. I was wondering if BlueOS could serve this function either in core or an extension. That way it could log pre dive checks, who operator is etc. Log actual dives with core information like duration, max depth etc. And also post dive checks. Seeing as the BlueOS gui is open and ready for almost all of our operations - seems like a natural place to integrate it.
I think this actually fits better within the control station software, because most vehicle operators ideally shouldn’t need to access the main BlueOS interface once the vehicle has been properly configured. I raised an issue about this for Cockpit a while ago, and would welcome additional ideas for it.
In my head the base functionality should get implemented within Cockpit core, but custom/extra lists should end up possible (and shareable) through add-ons, and some could be automatically installed together with relevant extensions (e.g. a DVL extension may add a checklist point about establishing an initial position before commencing the dive).
I was thinking about this as a transient thing, but you make a fair point that logging it into some kind of dive report / as part of the broader dive data collection would be useful, especially in professional applications. I’ll add a note about that in the issue
This does also tie somewhat into the idea of eventing.
Whilst it is similar to eventing, we’d want those separated. Eventing would be specifically related to data collection (scientific observations etc.). But dive logs and checklist side is more a QA and auditing element.
Eventing would happily fit into Cockpit, but the pre and post logs would better fit in a gui of it’s own, to avoid overload of the Cockpit interface - especially as the pilot may very well not be the person doing the pre and post checks in some cases.
