12 



The U.S. Navy's CURV (Cable-controlled Underwater Recovery Vehicle) grew out 

 of interest in a mobile underwater TV system produced by the New Jersey-based 

 Vare Co. and purchased by the Navy in 1957. A need for more expanded capa- 

 bilities prompted the Naval Ocean Systems Center (then Naval Electronics 

 Laboratory) to produce the first CURV in 1958. CURV's existence for the 

 next six years was scarcely noticed by the marine community, although it 

 recovered some 600 torpedos and other objects in support of Naval activities. 



The first worldwide visibility obtained by an ROV was CURV's retrieval of 

 an H-bomb in 869m (2,850 ft) of water off the coast of Spain in 1966. The 

 retrieval - aside from its drama - is interesting because it foretold the 

 strengths and weaknesses of ROVs. CURV, instead of the manned vehicle ALVIN, 

 was selected to retrieve the H-bomb owing to the likelihood of entanglement 

 with the shroudlines of the bomb's parachute. An ROV does not jeopardize 

 human life — a major asset over manned vehicles. In spite of cautious maneu- 

 vering CURV did become entangled. There was no choice but to retrieve the 

 bomb if CURV itself was to be retrieved. Entanglement, as is pointed out in 

 a subsequent section, is a major problem with today's ROV operators when working 

 in and around subsea structures. In any event, CURV did the job and received 

 international acclaim. 



From 1958 through 1974 the U.S. Navy constructed and funded development of 

 eight more ROVs. Three of these were additions and replacements for the original 

 CURV, the others were primarily testbed vehicles for advancement in technology, 

 two such vehicles were TORTUGA and ANTHRO built by Hydro Products, San Diego, 

 California. 



The design goal of TORTUGA was to produce a small (relative to CURV) maneu- 

 verable underwater video system designed for close examination of normally 

 inaccessible underwater areas. Although its military application is not 

 publicly reported, TORTUGA' s shape, size and mode of operation indicates 

 a potential for deployment from a submarine. Several experimental versions of 

 TORTUGA were built, the first units relied on water jets for propulsion, later 

 vehicles used propellers to increase maneuvering and responsiveness. 



The ANTHRO (anthromorphic) vehicle was a follow-on to TORTUGA which was also 

 constructed by Hydro Products with U.S. Navy funding. ANTHRO was developed 

 to investigate a concept wherein normal human perception would be preserved 

 in the vehicle. The technique employed (Strickland, 1969) was referred to as 

 "head coupled" video presentation and involved slaving the vehicle and/or 

 camera orientation to the operator's head attitude. The video presentation 

 was mounted on, and moved with, the operator's head. Consequently, the scene 

 being viewed moved in exact synchronization with the operator's head movement, 

 and his memory recorded the relative location of all objects in the field of 

 view. Binaural audio inputs fc>btained from a pair of hydrophones on the vehicle) 

 were also continuously provided to investigate the feasibility of detecting 

 and localizing underwater objects either by their own self-generated sound 

 or by reflected sound generated from the vehicle. 



