what best mini ROV for starting small business ?

What do you mean by "sea current"? Most micro ROV’s aren’t intended for anything more than a knot or two of current. Lots of options out there, prices will vary depending on where you’re located, model, etc. US made ROV’s tend to be the lowest cost option in the US but are very expensive overseas, especially in Europe. We’ve looked at SeaBotix, VideoRay, Outland, GNOM, Rov Builder, AC-ROV, JW Fisher, Shark, and others. They all have their benefits and failings. Depends what you want to do and how much you have to spend. As for sonar capability, just about anything can carry a small sonar, Tritech and Imagenex sell really tiny but pretty effective scanning sonars. You need to provide more info so we can get a better idea what you’ll need. And yes, I’ll agree that the SeaEye Falcon is definitely the top of the class. A real workhorse that can be adapted to a wide variety of jobs. There was a thread on this topic a while back, so a bit of searching should find it.

Gubundo,

As far as the VideoRay goes, in open oceans and currents, the most current model (Pro4) has more than 21lbs of thrust. I’ve used it offshore from West Africa to the Pacific in more than 3knots of current with a BlueView sonar on it. In fact at a recent independent test, the Pro4 had more bollard pull than any of the other ROV’s.

What I would recomend is setting up a demonstration of each system you are considering in what you would consider your normal working enviornment. There are folks out there that will tell you the system can do ‘xyz’ and when you go to use it, you find out it can’t even do ‘abc’.

Chief

Chief,

That independent test sounds interesting. Which company or organization performed the independent tests? What other ROVs did the VideoRay go up against? Were any other tests performed?

I agree that live demos are the best way to go as well. Seeing is believing!

Thanks.

Too true NCUWI ,
Then again if you see the same type of ROV on the Selling market that to my mind indicates in my brain that maybe there is a problem with them 😕
If a person is wiling to part with alot of hard earned cash to buy a ROV ,the invested interest would mean research and thought had gone into it in the first place,for example reliability and returns.This means that the asset would not be sold on as it is a reliable source of cash……….. The longer you have it the more the asset pays for itself and there for more profit. There would have to be a bloody good reason to sell it don’t you think ?
Or……………… The ROV was a load of poo and did not do what it says on the tin 😀
Check to see if Parts for the vehicle are cheap and in abundance ( That certain parts have not been phased out for better updated versions which sadly you cannot use in the one being sold. That the Vehicle is not too outdated or that the company manufacturing them has not gone bust.
Hope this helps 🙄

http://www.subsea-tech.com/index.php?p=prod&c=1&l=uk

Have a look at this company. We recently bought one of the Guardians for a project, it performed well. No too expensive. They’re in France too.