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6.1 IMMEDIATE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS (Commercial and Military Sector) 



6.1.1 Cable Technology 



Umbilical cable rupture and breakage through abrasion on man-made and natural 

 objects is a major cause of ROV malfunctions. Development of a stronger, 

 abrasion-proof cable is required which does not incur a penalty of greater mass 

 or greater drag. 



Development of light weight cable is also required. In this instance there must 

 be no degradation to the cablets data handling capability. Further exploration 

 into fiber optics should continue and be accelerated and the mechanical properties 

 of fiber optics when continuously flexed should be investigated. This technology 

 is critical to meet the increasing demands for greater depth of operation. 



Techniques for modifying existing, negatively-buoyant umbilical cables into 

 positively buoyant cables needs to be developed which do not interfere with 

 reeling-out and reeling- in procedures. Although deployment of ROVs from sub- 

 surface platforms (i.e., manned submersibles) is minimal at present, it is likely 

 that future applications via this mode will increase - particularly if under-ice 

 operations are required. Present day vehicles are limited in the distance they 

 can "fly" upward from a bottom-mounted deployment platform by the weight of 

 cable they can lift. 



Inspection of cables on towed vehicles is accomplished primarily by visual 

 examination of the outer sheathing. There are no rapid techniques available 

 for conducting a non-destructive examination of the inner strength members. 

 A non-destructive examination technique should be developed to provide relatively 

 rapid examination of the strength members for cable lengths of 6,000m and more. 



6.1.2 Television 



Although color television is not in great demand at present, it is inevitable 

 that there will be a demand for it in the future. There are several manufacturers 

 of underwater color TV. A technical assessment of the various models is required 

 to identify their level of color rendition, resolution and adaptability to the 

 underwater environment. Color TV for scientific missions is imperative and 

 there are developmental models which reportedly can provide an image equal 

 to - and perhaps better than - that obtained via direct viewing. One such model 

 is a prototype color TV manufactured by RCA which was used in the spring of 

 1979 to depths of 3,000m by the manned submersible ALVIN. According to several 

 of the scientists who participated in this mission, the TV image was of such 

 excellent quality that the scientists preferred viewing the monitor rather than 

 directly through the submersible' s viewports. 



A serious shortcoming in television viewing is the lack of dimensional data on 

 objects being viewed. Virtually every undersea task requires an estimate of 

 some object's size or dimensions. With present TV there is no method of doing 

 this accurately. (One operator has affixed two narrow beam lights 22cm distant 

 from each other, the light beams are recorded on the videotape and provide an 

 estimate of object size in two dimensions.) There is a need for a system 

 which can automatically and accurately determine the size of an object viewed 



