Low cost expansion of unmanned underwater remotely operated crawler (ROC) for pipeline inspection

Abstract

The ROV that can crawl on the seafloor is designed, called as Underwater Remotely Operated Crawler (ROC). The ROC must be set in totally negative buoyancy to ensure it crawl on the seafloor. This project is aimed to design and development of the low cost ROC for pipeline inspection. The 3D model design is developed using SolidWorks where certain parameters such as the centre of gravity and force can be obtained. An Arduino UNO, and H-bridge L298N have been used to process the signal received from the PS2 joystick controller, which also work as the controller of the system for ROC. The investigation and analysis of ROC in terms of manoeuvre, stability and obstacle avoidance also describe in this paper. The ROC can crawl on several surfaces like floor, sand, and grass surface. For underwater test, the waterproof test is done to ensure the electronic component are sealed tightly so that there it will last long. Next, the time taken for ROC to complete 2m distance of forward and reverse movement in the laboratory tank test and pool test is compared. As a result, the ROC can crawl until 0.065m of wooden plank's obstacle. In addition, the sliding test is one of the obstacle and its limit is 51.48°.