The dock was built in 1912, and after a long life through two world wars, several yards and over 100 years of service, it was refurbished and installed at its new location i 2018. Unfortunately it sank during its first docking operation in november that same year.
Our BlueROV is modified with a heavy configuration kit (having control over tilt and roll is invaluable) with a payload skid containing a custom made camera solution with a GoPro 7. There is a live stream from the camera through the existing ROV network.
I addition we’ve moved the lights out on arms to get the lights as far away from the camera as possible to reduce backscatter.
More pictures of the ROV can be found in this article (in Norwegian, but google-translatable), and this article (again, in Norwegian) contains more pictures and video from the floating dock.
We used two batteries, had two dives and went from -6 to -65 meters on both dives, which would have been more time-consuming, difficult and risky for a manned operation.
We think the BR2 looks very promising for our use, and are looking forward to using it on our productions.
The light setup works quite well. I’ve balanced each part so that it is neutral in water, so weight isn’t a problem. However, drag is.
Originally I had the four lights on an even longer arm, but that caused excessive drag. The setup in the picture above works quite well, though the lights should ideally have been even further away from the camera.
Also, cutting and splicing the cable for the lights, for placing them on the arms, has so far proven my inexperience with making proper seals with 3M Scotchcast, but luckily our supplier JM Robotics here in Norway has been very patient with me and been a great help.
I’ve spent the last half-hour looking for a picture of my build on my harddrive and a couple thumb drives to no avail.
I just coated these lights in epoxy-resin fiberglass (to waterproof them) and mounted them to carbon-fiber golf-club shafts, that are swung out to either side by a servo.
They don’t weigh enough to tilt the ROV, and since the cross-section is so minimal there is no apparent drag-induced yawing of the ROV. You just have to be careful to avoid catching them on stuff.
