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Hhe first commercial vehicle since Rebikoff s 1953 POODLE made its appearance 

 in 1975, Hydro Product's RCV-225 (initially designated RCV-125) . The two 

 RCV-225s would be the first of a total of 26 such vehicles built by Hydro 

 Products by 1978 to make it the world's leader in construction of industrially- 

 oriented vehicles. (RCV, Remotely Controlled Vehicle, is a registered trademark 

 of Hydro Products, a Tetra Tech Company.) 



Capitalizing on their experiences with TORTUGA and ANTHRO, Hydro Product's 

 RCV set the initial standards for industrially-oriented vehicles. The RCV 

 is a portable, lightweight and extremely maneuverable observation/video 

 documentation vehicle. The complete system (Plate 2.1) consists of a vehicle 

 control/display console, cable winch, launch/retrieval or deployment apparatus, 

 a power source, a launcher and the vehicle itself. (Performance specification 

 for the RCV-225 and other operational ROVs are contained in Appendix A.) 



The control station allows the operator to precisely position the RCV-225 

 relative to the object being inspected using a fully proportional joy-stick. 

 Vehicle depth and heading are automatically maintained by servo controls 

 and, in conjunction with lens pitch angle, are displayed in the television 

 picture and continuously recorded on video tape records. Additional displays 

 include number and direction of cable twists, tether cable payout length and 

 elapsed time. The heart of the viewing subsystem is the Hydro Products low 

 light level SIT television camera. It is equipped with a lens assembly 

 that enables the operator to remotely pitch the angle of view ±90 degrees 

 from the horizontal. Two 45-watt tungsten halogen lamps provide a viewing 

 range of up to ten meters with no ambient light. The light reflector config- 

 uration can be adjusted for optimum viewing in either clear or turbid water. 



The vehicle is highly maneuverable, even in currents approaching 1 knot. Four 

 oil- filled electric motors give the vehicle three degrees of freedom in 

 translation (thrust, sway, heave) and one rotational degree of freedom (yaw). 

 A syntactic foam hull encloses the motors and camera/electronics pressure 

 housing in a buoyant envelope. 



The deployment unit includes a protective RCV launcher with tether cable winch, 

 a deck winch with double armored cable mounted on a skid/A-frame assembly, 

 and a Hydraulic Power Supply. The vehicle is transported to working depth 

 in the launcher, flies out of the launcher to perform the inspection task, then 

 returns for transport back to the deck. Tether cable can be winched in or out 

 of the launcher by remote control. The RCV system is designed to avoid 

 entanglement situations through its small size, smooth hull, and high maneuver- 

 ability. Kevlar reinforcement provides a high strength, positively buoyant 

 tether cable, free of separately attached floats. The submersible winch in 

 the launcher allows the operator to retain excess tether cable in a protective 

 enclosure to reduce entanglement risk or potential tether cable damage. 

 Emergency retrieval provisions facilitate vehicle recovery in the event of 

 unavoidable entanglement. Upon command, the vehicle can be separated from 

 its cable to freely ascend to the surface. A pinger and strobe flasher aid 

 in location and surface recovery. 



Vehicle- to- vehicle diversity in characteristics and performance precludes 

 describing a vehicle representative of the entire field. However, using 

 commercial acceptance as a guide, the TROV and TREC vehicles constructed 

 by International Submarine Engineering Ltd. (ISE) , Port Moody, British Colombia 

 represent another approach to remotely operated vehicle technology. 



