Online Encyclopedia
Remotely operated vehicle
Remotely operated vehicles (ROV) are mobile tools used in environments too dangerous for humans. At a minimum, they consist of a camera and a two way communications mechanism allow the remote operator to control the vehicle. The vehicles is like to carry other tools.
Common examples of remotely operated vehicles are :
- submersibles used underwater instead of divers
- remotely controlled bomb disabling vehicles such as the type used by the British Army
- unmanned aerial vehicles such as Predator
- space probes such as Spirit
Submersible ROVs
Submersible remotely operated vehicles tend to be highly specialized, with some designed for scanning wide swaths of the ocean floor while others are designed for photography and recovery. A number of deep sea animals and plants have been discovered or studied in their natural environment only through the use of ROVs: examples include the jellyfish Bumpy and the eel-like halosaurs.
Submersible ROVs have been used to locate many shipwrecks, including that of the RMS Titanic, the Bismarck, USS Yorktown, and SS Central America. In some cases, such as the SS Central America and airline crashes such as Alaska Airlines Flight 261, ROVs have been used to recover material from the sea floor and bring it to the surface.
Image taken by an ROV under the ice of Antarctica. In the spring krill can scrape off the green lawn of ice algae from the underside of the pack ice in Antarctica. In this image most krill swim in an upside down position directly under the ice. Only one animal (in the middle) is hovering in the open water.