ROV Viking SPEAR

Abstract

AbstractLong Beach City College returns for our sixth year to enter the 2009 Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) remotely operated vehicle (ROV) competition with our latest ROV, the Viking SPEAR (Submarine Personnel Emergency Assistance ROV). The purpose of this ROV is to perform an underwater submarine rescue by inspecting it for damage, replenishing onboard air supplies, and delivering emergency materials to stranded crew members. This year’s ROV, designed in SolidWorks, is cut out of buoyant PVC, has a mass of 21 kg and is built to allow maximum water flow. The ROV is 38 cm high × 87 cm wide and 95 cm long. The major design focus was on redundancy and design functionality. The ROV has two, multi-functional pneumatic grippers, one at each end of the ROV, eight thrusters, and eight cameras covering all angles of viewing. A mating skirt is built into the existing frame design for easy docking on the submarine. These features allow the pilot to execute several tasks set forth by MATE in a timely fashion while providing the redundancy needed for a submarine rescue mission. In accomplishing the design and build of this ROV, the team created over 250 SolidWorks files, invested over 5,000 student hours, and corresponded daily utilizing the team’s online design forum. The entire project was heavily invested in computer aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM). The only system not designed by this team was the Fiber-Optic Video Link.