Engineer creates Philippines’ first ROV


MANILA, Philippines — The remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), better known as a submersible, has become stuff of the movies ever since it was used in some scenes in the movie Titanic. It found huge applications in the underwater research, mining and salvaging sectors.

One Filipino company aims to be a player in this industry.

Pobletech Inc recently released the Roboteknik i100, country’s first commercial ROV, a robotic machine that can submerge to a depth of up to100 meters and be controlled via remote control box. The ROV and the control box are all connected via an umbilical cord that serves as both power and data cable for the ROV, which transmits live streaming video to a monitor on a control box.

Because the Roboteknik runs on external power, it could be operated for over 24 hours while operators of the ROV work in shifts. The ROV could also be outfitted with external attachments, such as soil and water sample collectors, robotic arms and special cameras.

Meanwhile, the control unit has its own hard disk drive to save hundreds of hours of videos and photos. continue reading...