Page 83 - The ROV Manual - A User Guide for Remotely Operated Vehicles 2nd edition
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3.4 Vehicle classifications 71
Table 3.1 Observation-Class Vehicles Weighing Less Than Approximately 91 kg (200 lb)
Name Company Weight (kg) in Air Depth (m)
AC-ROV
Firefly
H300
Hyball
LBV
Navaho
Offshore Hyball Outland 1000 Phantom 150 Phantom XTL Prometeo RTVD-100MKIIEX Predator
Seaeye 600 DT Seaeye Falcon Stealth VideoRay
AC-CESS CO, UK 3 75
Deep Ocean Engineering, USA 5.4 46
ECA Hytec, France 65 300
SMD Hydrovision Ltd., UK 41 300 SeaBotix, Inc., USA 1015 1501500 Sub-Atlantic (SSA Alliance), UK 42 300
SMD Hydrovision Ltd., UK 60 300 Outland Technology Inc., USA 17.7 152
Deep Ocean Engineering, USA 14 46
Deep Ocean Engineering, USA 50 150 Elettronica Enne, Italy 4855
Mitsui, Japan 42 150 Seatronics Group, UK 65 300 Seaeye Marine Ltd., UK 65 300 Seaeye Marine Ltd., UK 50 3001000 Shark Marine Technologies Inc., Canada 40 300 VideoRay LLC, USA 44.85 0305
The following chapters will provide an overview of various classes of ROVs, related technolo- gies, the environment they will work in, and words to the wise about how to—and how not to—use them to complete an underwater task. How well this is done will show up in the History chapter of future publications.
3.4.3 Today’s mid-sized vehicles
The MSROV (vehicles weighing between 200 and 2000 lb (91907 kg) technology is rapidly catching up to the larger WCROVs with deeper depth capabilities and more efficient power deliv- ery. Several manufacturers (Table 3.2) are popping up worldwide, but the current predominant players are Saab SeaEye (near Southampton, UK) and Sub-Atlantic (Aberdeen, Scotland). Both companies manufacture a full line of deep-rated electric vehicles that extend up to the light work class. Most of the heavier ( .2000 lb (1000 kg)) systems are standard rated to 6500 ft (2000 m) depth with expansion to 10,000 ft (3000 m) depth ratings (or higher). The lines between the OCROV, MSROV, and WCROV classes continue to blur with the smaller vehicles gaining further capabilities of the next higher size.
3.4.4 The ROV “spread”
An ROV spread is defined as all items needed to deploy and support the ROV system in the field. They range from one simple suitcase for the micro-ROV all the way to a fully integrated heavy WCROV system integrated into the large DP-2 vessel with internal control station, hangar-housed