Emerging ROV Capabilities - Moving from Inspection to Intervention

EOD teams are moving away from traditional mine-clearance methods using EOD divers in favour of using unmanned vehicles, specifically ROVs. Typically, ROVs for EOD applications have been deployed to perform inspection duties rather than active intervention to neutralise threats. However, in response demand from EOD teams for light weight expeditionary systems, SeeByte has collaborated with other industry partners, including Teledyne Marine, to develop a smart ROV system which is able to perform a range of capabilities and functions- including active intervention and IED neutralisation. These threats can potentially include moored, drifting, bottom, floating, and limpet mines

The system hardware comprises of a Teledyne Seabotix vLBV 300 ROV, a Teledyne RDI DVL and a HDT manipulator arm. SeeByte contributed and adapted CoPilot- a commercially-developed smart software system to control the robot autonomously. Introducing autonomous aspects to the capability is crucial to developing a system which is able to take the workload off the operators so that they are better able to focus on the task in hand.

The intended outcomes for this system include being able to locate/acquire/identify a potential threat, neutralise, Render Safe Procedure (RSP), conduct work, and recover with minimal collateral damage to the surrounding environment.

This talk will present the how the vehicle, software and sensors come together to create a comprehensive EOD-ROV system that is a reliable tool fit for EOD applications. The ultimate goal is to effectively place a layer of technology between the EOD operators and potentially dangerous environments.

Presented by:

Leverett Bezanson, SeeByte