Poseidon Robotics

Never leave home without an ROV! Don't have one yet? Get in touch. On a recent drive to Salt Lake City, we packed the Blue ROV in the car and made a stop at Lake Powell. The 6 thruster version with 150m reel takes less space than a large suitcase and the work laptop already has QgroundControl installed. Though most of our customers are after bigger ROVs, the Blue ROV is small, battery powered, and quickly deployed anywhere. We can also usually have one assembled, tested, and ready to ship in about a week. $11,900 typical system cost. #BlueRobotics #ROV #PoseidonRobotics

ROV Design 101 - Pressure Balanced Oil Filled (if you must) 10 tips when designing with fluids in mind: 1. Use for high speed shaft seals (i.e. thrusters). 2. Common for large electronics from 1,000m to full ocean depth. 3. Select the cleanest oil that will work, and consider spill mitigation. 4. Add slight positive pressure compensation via a "Compensator". Typically 300-700mBar. 5. Compensator volume must accommodate full range of operating temperatures. Typically 0C in the deep ocean to 50C on deck in the sun. Have enough room so it won't ever vent in the ocean. Calculate volume delta and use about 20% of total oil volume in the compensator as a starting point. 6. Always have an emergency pressure relief valve to prevent dangerous pressure build up (typically happens when deck testing). 7. Be careful around hyraulic systems, such as valve pack enclosures; if a valve seal breaks, hoses and vents should be able to vent the added high volume/pressure of fluid safely. 8. Place "fill" "bleed" ports around the housings to allow air to be vented from the system, and oil drained when needed. Consider how the system will sit inside the ROV. 9. Add view ports "windows" using Acrylic or similar material to see the quality of the oil. 10. Keep electronics out of low points to allow small amounts of water ingress to settle and be removed without damaged. Bonus tip - for some small compensated volumes, a compensator can sometimes be avoided. Consider using a clear flexible lid such as "Clear PVC" and allow the lid to handle the change in volume with temp/pressure. #PoseidonRobotics #Engineering #ROV #OceanExploration

Subsea survey equipment has slowly been shrinking into ever smaller packages and if ROVs are going to be competitive, they have shrink as well. If, you haven't see the latest issue of WORKBOAT Magazine, there is a bit about our new Maui ROV on page 19. https://lnkd.in/guUwTwC3

ROV Design 101 - Fiber Optic Tethers 10 Tips to get started using unlimited bandwidth: 1. More often than not, a custom design is required, but this can be <6 weeks. 2. Make sure it's strong enough to hold ~5x the launch weight of the ROV. 3. Power conductor size is still critical, but noise is not a concern. 4. Keep the tether design balanced or use filler material to fill voids. 5. Fibers should be in a gel-filled plastic "buffer tube" for protection. 6. Remember the bare earth wire and preferably foil shielding for safety. 7. Conductors/buffer tube should be spiraled to allow strength members to tighten before conductors/fiber. 8. For shallow water, foamed Polyurethane jacket with smooth outer layer. 9. Single mode Fiber only. Multi-mode is old-school and limited. 10. For selecting a F/O tether, please contact us [email protected] Bonus. Single "pass" F/O sliprings with copper passes of 480V and up to 20A or reasonably quality are relatively cheap (~$1,000 USD). To get 4 optical passes + the electrical conductors in a high quality slipring could cost $50,000 USD or more. Therefore, select F/O modems that use only a single fiber for both both up-link and down-link (typically 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths). #PoseidonRobotics #ROV #OceanExploration #LanaiX

ROV Design 101 - Designing for ease of use 10 tips to make an ROV easier to service: 1. Make it easy to service: it won't break, and techs won't skip maintenance. 2. High voltage tether should be impossible to connect to the wrong port. 3. Use quick/reliable connectors liberally (MacArtney/AK shown below). 4. Use labels people can such as PF (Port Forward) in photo. 5. Use as few types of screws/bolts as possible and keep the differences obvious. i.e. M3 x 6mm long and M3 x 20mm long, not 20 and 22mm. 6. Keep number of tools required to a minimum. M2, M2.5, M3 covers 90% of Lanai ROV fasteners. 7. Always include good quality tools with the system, they save 10x $. 8. Difficult to reach areas should be easily accessible by removing a few bolts. For example, buoyancy should come off with a few easy bolts. 9. One good photo in a manual = 4 pages of text instructions. Video is best. 10. Use and document correct grease/thread-locker, basic guidelines below: a. Nickle/Copper anti-seize on stainless into stainless b. Aquashield or Nickle on stainless into Aluminum c. Molykote 111 Silicone O-ring grease on face sealing o-rings and gaskets d. Molykote 55 Lithium grease on bore sealing o-rings e. Always lock fasteners with lock washer or thread locker f. LocTite 242 covers most applications. 271/277 to keep it in place #PosedionRobotics #LanaiROV #ROV #OceanExploration

Free passes to Underwater Intervention will no longer be available after October 15th! ??? ? Don't miss out! Register here: https://lnkd.in/gH9dzwWh #underwaterintervention #ui24

Never forget where you came from! Our systems grow bigger and faster, but this is still a favorite #PoseidonRobotics #LanaiROV #ROV

ROV Design 101 - Electrical safety 10 tips to prevent electrocution when powering ROVs Electrical safety around water might seem odd, but it is both possible to put electricity in water, and reasonably safe if done correctly. Here are 10 tips to get started, but please seek professional advice when entering this field for the first time: 1. It "take two to tango" always use isolated transformers/power supplies in the design of the surface system. If neither of the power wires are connected to Earth in any way, an operator must touch both wires simultaneously to be electrocuted. Swimming and touching one damaged wire would do nothing. 2. Always have a BIG RED EMERGENCY STOP button in an obvious place. 3. Use an incoming fuse, and outgoing fuses on each power conductor. 4. "Earth leakage" or "Ground Fault Interrupter" are required on AC systems. 5. "Line Isolation Monitor" is required in DC systems. 6. Any exposed metal on the surface supply must be grounded to earth. 7. A warning light ("TETHER LIVE" in the photo) to indicate power is on. 8. Just like home appliances, live sockets are always female to prevent arcing. 9. Add an indicator LED on stored energy devices (filter caps on the PCB). 10. Always test the safeties, and always remind users to test them with labels. Bonus tip: 5mA (.005A) will hurt, >30mA starts to immobilize a person, causing them to drown, and around 100mA my be fatal almost instantly. Our Lanai ROV console shown here outputs 3,000mA so even 1% lost to the water is unacceptable. #PoseidonRobotics #ROV #Engineering #ElectricalSafety #OceanExploration #BlueRobotics #OffshoreWind #LanaiROV

ROV Design 101 - Mixing Electricity and Water 10 tips to get power to the bottom of the ocean ROVs are generally power hungry, and they already need a tether for communication and control, so why not send power down there? In many cases, the ROV must remain submerged for days or weeks at a time, such as surveying subsea power cables, so power is a must. Here are some tips: 1. Determine how much power is needed at the vehicle first, then tether losses, then add a bit to the surface supply. 2. For 6, 7 and 8 thruster systems, enough power to run all thrusters at 100% plus all accessories is idea, but 10% more is good and 30% less is sometimes acceptable. 3. For 3, 4, and 5 thruster systems, have power to run everything at 100%. 4. Cables have resistance, the longer/smaller the cable, the higher the resistance and the greater the power loss. Increase the tether voltage until the tether conductor diameter and operating voltage are both reasonable. 5. Power converters, tethers, connectors, and safety equipment come in discrete voltage ranges, select the highest common tether voltage that will keep power losses between 10 and 40%. Common ranges are: a. 48-72VDC - suitable for very small systems and short tethers only b. 120-240VAC - small vehicles <1kW and tethers < 300m c. 300-400VDC - common ROVs <5kW and tethers <1km d. 440-660VAC - common for medium sized ROVs, tether < 500m e. 600-1,000VDC - common for medium ROVs, <10kW, tether <1km f. 3,000-6,000VAC - Work class and small/med deep ROVs, tether >1km 6. NEVER use mains AC voltage directly, always use an isolation transformer and earth leakage or line isolation monitor and circuit breaker! The ROV must shut off if more than about 10-30mA leaks into the water. DC supplies must also be isolated and have an isolation monitor ($$). 7. "It's cold in the ocean" use the subsea housing to dissipate heat. 8. "Power management" is critical to ensure the ROV cannot draw more power than can be provided. If the supply is smaller than the total possible load, it must be able to reduce voltage or the flight control software must be able to limit the power required by the vehicle. For this reason, ridged regulation isn't desirable. 9. Maximizing the power density is critical to reducing costs, most off the shelf solutions are too big. Use a good DC:DC converter, such as VICOR DCM or BCM series, and design an application specific PCB/housing. 10. Testing is critical. Changes in tether length, accessory power, or the ship's supply source can and will cause unforeseen problems. Build a resistive load bank for bench testing, buy the actual tether to be used, and invest in a good Oscilloscope to identify potential problems. #PoseidonRobotics #ROV #Engineering #OceanExploration #VicorPower #OceanX #LanaiROV