We have a job coming up where we want to use a USBL to reach a target 100 m down.
Ideally, we need a software where we can drop a target pin on a map and monitor the ROV position and fly it manually. Someone suggested PosiView for QGIS previously. I was wondering if there were any other suggestions.
Cheers for any help.
Hey Gav!
Could you elaborate on that?
The pin would be on a 2D map? I ask because you mentioned reaching the 100m down target, so I’m not sure if we are talking about 2D pin point positioning + setting the depth or something else.
Correct, a pin(s) on a 2D map. A lot of targets will be the sea bed. It’s a good point you make but I was referring to 2D. I don’t think positioning is shown in a 3D model in the industry. I know you work on Cockpit Rafael so this would be useful to see implemented there. Most of us want to know the position of the ROV but it’s not much good if we can’t load a target to see ROV position in relation to target. QGC lets us see ROV and load a background map but that’s of limited use. Do you want me to submit a feature request? This would require webGIS to load shapefiles/KML files and a way to plot the live location of ROV and surface vessel. My initial question was asking if something existed for this already but it might also be something to consider for cockpit.
Got it!
And you would usually work more on a mission basis (load mission with targets and send to ROV to execute them all automatically) or you’re thinking more on loading a file with targets and them manually clicking each target individually to send the ROV there?
It would be awesome if you open a feature request in the repo, yes!
Cockpit only has waypoint-only mission loading today. We did the initial feature but decided to polish the regular ROV features to start. We plan to go back adding features to the mission planning part by the end of January.
I do ROV mapping by shareware “OpenCPN”
I get nautical chart, ship and ROV plotted live on screen.
Easy to add waypoints etc to navigate ship as well as ROV at the same time.
Note the trix in the end of the post that you have to send ROV position as NMEA TLL; plotting systems only allow one “ship”
That software also makes a track of the ROV if you like.
Thanks Bo, always great to get your view and experience.
Rafael, I’ll give you more input when I get a chance.