MURS-300 MK II: A remote inspection system for underwater facilities of hydraulic power plants

While the civil engineering facilities of hydraulic power plants such as dam, water intake, waterway, etc., are usually submerged, there are few effective methods for their inspection. So we at Mitsui Ocean Development and Engineering Co., Ltd. (MODEC) have developed a new remote-controlled inspection system named "MURS-300 MK II" (MODEC Unmanned Remote-Controlled Submersible for 300-m water depth) in cooperation with Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. This MK II system, which consists of a submersible vehicle with a TV camera and a still camera, a handling system, a control van, and a composite cable with optical fibers, was designed, developed, and successfully evaluated at the end of 1984. This new system will find many applications to the inspection of nuclear and thermal power stations, offshore platforms, etc., as well as hydraulic power plants.