A Description of a Very Low Cost Underwater Vehicle Project

This paper presents a description of a very low cost underwater vehicle project, specifically about a remotely operating vehicle (ROV). The main motivation of this research is based on the fact that underwater robotics in Brazil is a recent scientific domain, particularly in experimental aspects. A few project specifications were established, and the actuators, sensors, structure and onboard electronics were projected and constructed. The ROV developed, named ROVFURG-I, has four actuators (motor with helices) and three sensors: two accelerometers (each one working in two axes) and one girometer. There are four degrees of freedom actively controlled. The project was made with two degrees of freedom controlled in passive form (roll and pith angles). The inertial trajectories were obtained with sensors data. However, errors inevitably are integrated and with forty seconds of trajectory the errors become significant.