Aerial drones are great for providing a bird’s eye view of
our world. It’s great seeing our world from that view, but what about viewing
from a drone that is underwater?
Some people are more interested in seeing a fish’s eye view
of their local seacoast or lake. Sometimes
back such people could build their own under-water remote operated vehicle
(ROV), but now, a company, OpenROV is crowd funding the fully assembled Trident
ROV which can reportedly be ‘flown’ through the water.
The hydrodynamic has two rear thrusters that can provide
horizontal propulsion along with a third-mounted vertical thruster that moves
the ROV vertically.
It has a top speed of 2m/s and can descend to a maximum
depth of 100 meters (328ft), it can also hover on the spot, delicately panning
and tilting to inspect targets via its front-mounted HD video camera and six
LED spotlights.
Since radio waves does not travel well through water, that’s
why the Trident sends real time video and receive commands via a
neutrally-buoyant cable that runs up to a WI-FI equipped buoy. It isn’t limited
by cable that runs all the way back to the operator. In fact, the cable that
comes is 25m (82ft) long – buyers who want to take the Trident deeper can go
with an optional longer cable.
Users will control the ROV and view its video via
open-source software on the topside laptop or mobile device. Along with
providing real-time remote control, this program can also be used to set the
Trident to perform grid searches of a give area.
One charge of its LiFePO4 battery pack should allow for up
to three hours of use – remember unlike aerial drone, it isn’t constantly
working to stay aloft.
If you are liking the sounds of Trident, you can currently
preorder one on OpenROV’s kickstarter
page with a pledge of US$799. The planned retail price is $1999. If all
plans goes as planned, backers should receive their ROV next November
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