ROV research

[donnamama]

My daughter is doing a science article on ocean ROV and needs to know life expectancy/lifespan on these machines. Anyone know where I can find this information? Please help.
THanks!

[Andy Shiers]

Hmmmm , Interesting notion but wrong context ! 😕
Does an ROV have a life expectancy 😕
Does your car ?
Ship’s Thrusters seriously damages an ROV’s health 😯
So do old Ship wrecks !
Would you drive your car on a journey knowing that it will break down or woould you fix it with a new part prior to setting off ?
Please elaborate for me as I am stupid ROVman 😀
Then I will endeavour to part with some small grey matter for your scrutiny 🙄

[Feyd]

Its quite subjective really. An ROV will work as long as u keep maintaining it and replacing the bits that wear out. Of course there does reach a point when you can argue its not the same ROV anymore as you’ve replaced so many of its key components. I guess you could argue the frame of a work-class system could be a benchmark component as to its age? I don’t know how often that gets replaced. Certainly with the smaller eyeball ROV’s, once the pressure hull is no longer usuable (say cracked beyond repair) then thats the end of ‘that’ ROV regardless of what you do with the left over bits.

There are ROV’s still going strong from the early 80’s. Of course eventually the company that makes the parts for the system will move on or go out of business and it’ll become more difficult to maintain as its no longer supported.

[Mike Kidd]

I have had the same broom for 20 years, 8 new heads and 6 new handles

Trigger 😀

[Mag50]

Greeting,

Like a car or any man made mech/elec system, it depends on practiablity and how well it has been maintained in the past, present and furture. If it has become outdated and unuseful to the industry it will become an unrealative item or a classic. Remember, it is a man made device just as a car.
How long will a car last, it depends on the history. If you take care of it it will last even if better system replaces it. However, it will remain a coner stone.

Peace

MAg 50

[Andy Shiers]

There are ROV’s still going strong from the early 80’s

Bollocks !
I know of ROV’s that are still running since the early seventies 😀
The ROV’s ( Just like a car ) will go on for ever depending on whether you can get the parts 😀
You still can see old vintage cars roaming the country some of them for Weddings so , in effect they are still earning their keep ! The same as ROV’s
So again ………………………………. The question needs to be re-addressed to be logical 😕

[Scott Beveridge]

Lost dude,

Not manned subs… ROV’s (RCV’s) – mid-seventies is more accurate. There’s 2 or 3 RCV-225’s still around and I heard there was one on a job 2 or 3 years ago… Can anyone confirm this?? Curious… 8) What about the RCV-150’s (x2) at Woodside? Any one seen the remaining (one?) as of late? Any ex-US Navy out there that worked on White’s Is. San Diego? What about all the hush-hush or de-classified stuff there? Amazing equipment there!!!

[James McLauchlan]

………….needs to know life expectancy/lifespan on these machines……….

They do not have an expected lifespan. As suggested earlier, an ROV can be run for a long time (Many years) given the correct maintenance/parts/upgrades. Whether it is cost effective to keep an old vehicle running is another matter.

[Feyd]

One of the CURV’s is still knocking about funnily enough!

http://www.nosc.mil/robots/undersea/curv/curv.html

[Andy Shiers]

Have you forgotten the standard Scorpio 25 hp , Scott ? 🙄

[Scott Beveridge]

Have you forgotten the standard Scorpio 25 hp , Scott ? 🙄

Dude, those were circa (on design table) 1978 I believe.

Feyd, thanks for the link – but I’m referring to commercial ROV’s (RCV’s). I actually saw a bit of CURV2 in 78′!

[Andy Shiers]

Nope 😉
The Scorpio concept was designed in the Sixties in conjunction with the US Navy and a certain recluse for locating and removing a certain "Red Sub"
The Scorpio or …………………………………………….
Submersible Craft for Ocean Repair , Position.Inspection and Observation
Was desigened with Comercial Input in mind in the early seventies by Ametek in San Diego , They were being utilised in the Northsea and GOM early seventies and the Super Scorpio in the early eighties up to Number five I believe , ( Possibly wrong but I know for definate up to 003 which was Ex-BUS before Sonsub then bought out by Oceaneering……………….. Unfortunately 🙁 ) then they stopped making them and then started again in the late eighties , UDI I think had a part to play in why they were Re-introduced.
As for RCV’s , I confess I never played with them but they were definately around in the mid seventies for commercial usage and they were designed to pass through Torpedo tubes so I would expect that they were around for military usage a long time before that 😯

Darts are quite old and so are Rascals – the controls for it were like driving a TANK
😕

[Scott Beveridge]

Lost dude,

Was that not BUE?

See this link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050825/news_lz2e25lets.html

(with the following paragraph)

These were based on the Scorpio design introduced in 1977 to support offshore oil and gas underwater work principally in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The "super" category meant increased depth capability and more robust manipulators and underwater work tools. Nearly 100 SCORPIO ROVs were sold, many of which are still operating in worldwide offshore energy operations, as well as in the British and American navies.

and this Wikpedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpio_45

(although it is SN 045…)

Super Scorpio
Delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1987, the Super Scorpio is a “Tethered Unmanned Work Vehicle System”. The vehicles are used for the recovery of sunken military and commercial hardware. They feature two cameras, a sonar, six lights and two robotic arms. The arms can cut steel cable up to one inch (2.5 cm) thick and lift up to 250 pounds (113 kg) each. The sonar has a range of 2,000 feet (610 m).

And this: http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/e02857k25324g031/fulltext.pdf

Back to the original poster, donnamama, Loads of info in these addresses above

[Ray Shields]

the Super Scorpio in the early eighties up to Number five I believe , ( Possibly wrong but I know for definate up to 003 which was Ex-BUS before Sonsub then bought out by Oceaneering……………….. Unfortunately 🙁 ) then they stopped making them and then started again in the late eighties , UDI I think had a part to play in why they were Re-introduced.
😕

UDI had Super Scorpio 10 on the Northern Prince till about 1995. I think we sold the vehicle to STS when they lost SS9, or it may have been converted to become Sea Demon 01 (start of the Hydrovision Sea Demons), I cant remember.

I know Im getting old as the first ROV I worked on, CUTLET, is now in the Submarine museum in Portsmouth!

Good info on old ROV systems at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pjW1QoX1KeIC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=cutlet+rov&source=web&ots=ArE3T8k8Fw&sig=L4I7qbL2008nvl-pYJEGtQTka68&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPR5,M1

[Scott Beveridge]

Ray,

Know what you mean… RCV-225’s, 125’s, UFO, DART, TREK’s, … the list goes on.

Thanks for the link.

FYI SS 010 is now an Explorer – can’t remember which # (STS of course)

[Author]

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