What I’m working on right now amounts to a tethered camera with no thrusters, but it is attached to a surface buoy. Obviously that buoy will be resting on the surface and bobbing along with the height and period of each wave. This motion will get transmitted along the tether and cause the camera to move as well. The one motor involved in this equation is the tether winch. It is fast enough, and my camera heavy enough that I could in theory raise and lower the camera according to the buoy’s altitude so that the camera remains level underwater based on an IMU reading and calculated winch action. It’s a bit like a gimbal but with distance rather than angles (and just one axis).
I do realize there are a lot of ways to deal with this issue- I’m considering more passive mechanical solutions as well but for now I’d like to explore this “dynamic winch” idea. Thanks for any suggestions!
-Kevin