Mechanical/naval design of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for surveillance and inspection of port facilities

This paper presents the mechanical/naval design process of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV), required to obtain reliable visual information, used for surveillance and maintenance of ship shells and underwater structures of Colombian port facilities. The design was divided into four main subsystems: mechanical/naval, hardware, software and guidance, navigation and control. The most relevant design constraints were evaluated considering environmental conditions, dimensional restrictions, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, degrees of freedom and the availability of instrumentation and control hardware. The mechanical/naval design was performed through an iterative process by using computational tools, including Computer Aided Design CAD, Computer Aided Engineering CAE, Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD and a high level programming environment. The obtained design ensures that the reliable operation of the robot will be achieved by using a consistent construction process. The new ROV constitutes an innovative product in Colombia, and it will be used for surveillance and oceanographic research tasks.