Wireless Communication to ROV via a floating topside station?

Blue Robotics Vehicles
1

Hello, new to this group and have been reading the forms and have a question.

We are looking to deploy BlueROV2 alongside our boat, but would not like to have a tether to the vessel so the boat is free to maneuver while someone controls the ROV.

My idea is to build a small floating boat/platform that holds electronics to establish a wireless uplink between the control boat and the ROV. Distance would not be too far (within 100M LOS) and need good video quality.

Any advice on doing this? Thinking of keeping the control laptop on the floating platform and passing control signals and video back and forth.

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2

Hi @Spagani, welcome to the forum! :slight_smile:

It’s likely easier to just have a wifi router or similar on the boat/platform (which the tether plugs into directly), and then the laptop and controller can be connected to that router’s network from the control boat.

100m is quite far for wifi, so you’ll likely need something targeted/somewhat high power. If the computer doesn’t have direct line of sight it may also be helpful to have a wifi antenna that’s connected to the computer.

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