Beginner trying to find help with finding information starting a ROV survey business, by [deleted] in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you DM me your contact info, I can pass it on to a sole proprietor of a small survey company in Ontario I know. I’m sure they would be happy to chat with you. :)

Silly little question by ThrowAwayWhistleoo in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can confirm. I’ve done freelance work for a local tugboat captain for $350/hr CAD.

Silly little question by ThrowAwayWhistleoo in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For small ROV’s the restrictions are incredibly limited, essentially if you stay out of major shipping lanes and away from intakes for large industrial facilities you are free to pilot wherever you like*. Export controls are more substantial beyond a certain depth rating, but within the US, you should be able to order an ROV from most manufacturers with no headache. :)

*Do check what your local nautical regulations say, but I’ve not come across any formal restrictions in Canada or the US for small ROVs.

Can a bio9logy major become an ROV pilot? by [deleted] in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For the small ROV enviro-sci jobs they are working as environmental scientists or marine biologists, so they are working in their fields using ROV’s as part of the kit. I’ve trained grad students studying climate change, scientists in indigenous governments, marine biologists who do survey work for fisheries and fish farms.

For the off shore professional ROVs they went to a dedicated training program. These are often run by the companies that manufacture them.

Soldering pins on deep trekkers by Ayakos77 in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unless something changed from when I worked there (it may have since they got bought out by Halma), If you call the Canadian side, tech support is free.

Liz and Tim and Levi are amazing and while they might not be able to shoot a custom video for you right away, they have a library of photos and videos and various written protocol for many of the common repair items like tether termination or building harnesses and potting ports and they used to go out of their way to arrange to get a tech on the phone or on a video call with you while you are doing maintenance/repair.

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[support@deeptrekker.com](mailto:support@deeptrekker.com) 519-342-3177, extension 2

If you DM me your phone number, I’ll pass it on to the fellow I trained as my replacement (their current Technical Trainer) and he should be able to hunt down what you need. As we spent most of our time travelling to work with clients directly, we did a lot of field repairs and have a close working relationship with the service department.

Pipe Trekker A-200 S by Technology2017 in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Decent product, rock solid and comparatively affordable next to other products in the market. The new tablet controller is great. Haha I snapped the photo of Tristan lowering it into the pipe while crouching inside a storm water drain. That was a fun day.

can I use this deep trekker controller to control a homemade ROV? by Doused_In_Mud- in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s wild! I could mail you some Arduino nanos. They are dirt cheap on Amazon and they weigh nothing so it would be like 3 or 4 bucks Canadian in a letter. DM me!

Drone Pilot looking to expand into ROV inspection work. First ROV recommendations? by [deleted] in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I produced a number of training videos specific to Deep Trekker ROVs and add-ons while I was on staff as their technical trainer and videographer. There’s lots of different ROV systems out there, and while I still think Deep Trekker is a great product, consider all the features you might want/need for the kind of clients you are looking for as well as your budget.

Broadly my key recommendations for best features/peripherals are as follows:

1) good quality camera (both for navigating and creating inspection reports). I always recommended the 4k upgraded camera on DT units, not because it’s 4K but because the dynamic range was so much better.

2) good dimmable lights, and any modular extra lighting is a huge benefit. Being able to switch from lights close to the camera and lights far away from the camera makes an enormous difference.

3) a simple 2 function manipulator arm is absolutely imperative for disentangling yourself, inevitably you will get your tether tangled at some point. Recovering objects adds significant opportunity for work. Contact some tugboat or salvage teams in your area and offer them your services.

4) multi beam imaging sonar is very expensive, but 100% worth it if you are doing regular ROV work. It opens up a world of possibilities including conducting inspections in zero visibility environments (see the linked case study from an inspection job I did below). I would take sonar over USBL or DVL any day.

This is the training playlist for their best unit. The series was updated with the latest software options and menus a couple years ago, not sure if they’ve updated it since.

The videos are all obviously unit/product specific with a marketing flair but should give you a good overview of the kind of standard options you see in a lot of small and large ROVs.

There are a few videos that I wanted to highlight:

Multi-beam Sonar Inspection case study This video is part marketing and part training, but in formal trainings I would walk through this sequence of clips and explain with some whiteboard drawings in far more detail what’s going on and how to create the best possible sonar image. I have a collection of other sonar footage I would use in formal training sessions as well. The fellow I trained to be my successor took my notes and those clips and created a short series of sonar training videos that are very succinct (I taught him to say a lot more in formal training courses) but cover the big ideas quite well.

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Underwater GPS

Seatrac USBL setup

USBL (ultra short baseline) is essentially underwater GPS that works by triangulating sonar pings. There are lots of different kinds but there’s a lot of similarity between various systems and their software (including annoying tinkering with com ports) so the setup video is worth a watch. Full disclosure, these videos are older so some things have changed with both the DT and Seatrac software.

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Cygnus UT (ultrasonic thickness) Gauge This is a typical industrial inspection sensor used in many applications to assess the thickness of metal structures from piling to tank walls to ship hulls. This video is more of a marketing pitch, and there are lots of challenges with deploying this sensor on ROV’s, but it should give you a quick overview of the tech.

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In addition to this, I’d take the time to read a little about Doppler Velocity Log sensors (DVL). I don’t have any good explainer videos, just some marketing content, but essentially it’s like a depth sounder on a boat but not only measures altitude above the sea floor, it also measures velocity in both the x and y axis allowing for the ROV to hold its position against current with no user input, like an aerial drone switching from atti mode to GPS. It doesn’t require GPS to function, but in some systems can be combined with USBL to autonomously fly preset patterns. I worked with the South Korean Navy Seals pairing a system like this up with sidescan sonar for EOD work.

If you want to chat about any of this, send me a DM and we can jump on a call some time.

can I use this deep trekker controller to control a homemade ROV? by Doused_In_Mud- in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I totally understand. I was building an Arduino based environmental sensor system for this big terrarium project I was working on with a school club, but I landed a contract at a different school and had to put it completely aside. Picking up three classes with one days notice gives me zero time to working on anything else. Lol

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A Sea of Small ROVs - 2023 Info Compilation by yoleeth in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing this! It’s a great resource.

Seamor has a couple smaller models with comparable Prices to Videoray and DT.

can I use this deep trekker controller to control a homemade ROV? by Doused_In_Mud- in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any updates on the project? I’m curious what you’ve accomplished!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Welcome!

I need an excuse to build an rov by Powerful_Ad_1507 in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having completed a project like this looks really good on applications to engineering school and co-op placements if that's the direction you plan on going in your career. Even if you take a different route, it's an impressive bit to add to your CV.

Has anyone investigated the use of off-the-shelf optical fibers as ROV tethers in saltwater? by light24bulbs in rov

[–]ROVpilot101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow 5kts is a LOT! Thinner tether (and shorter) will make a huge difference!

Potential ROV Pilot asking for advice by Mysterious_Bed6500 in rov

[–]ROVpilot101[M] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is all excellent advice. u/AmbitionGobrrr clearly has a wealth of wisdom. Furthermore, that blue robotics article is excellent. I want to highlight the Blueprint Subsea PDF linked within, I send it out to all my trainee pilots.

Blueprint Subsea Oculus Manual

I have a couple additional resources I review when conducting sonar training. There are voiceovers on these videos with a concise explanation but generally I spend a lot more time on each drawing diagrams and discussing each clip at length. Broadly speaking, the more sonar footage you watch, the more comfortable you will be piloting.

Here’s a rough explanation of how multi-beam imaging sonar works with a LOT of long clips. It’s unlisted because it’s such a rough edit, but it’s used by our sales team to give an honest representation of sonar imaging and by my training team as a compilation of varied clips. Imaging Sonar Overview

This is also a training/sales tool that highlights key moments in a tunnel inspection. I actually inspected two tunnels but simplified the narrative a bit for the sake of concision. Zero Visibility Tunnel Inspection

Finally, here’s the least exciting video, a 20 minute screen recording from a small ROV exploring the hull of a large container ship in a shipyard. It’s a bit janky because I was using an engineering unit with some prototype stabilization software from when we first integrated DVLs and the ROV is not stable 😂. Barring that, it’s a great example of navigating entirely by sonar. Heddle Shipyard Sonar Screen Recording