The iWROV: the intelligent future

The introduction of "intelligence" into modern vehicles (such as airplanes, ships, and automobiles) has resulted most often in fully automated, intelligent machines that are supervised by humans, rather than in completely autonomous robotic vehicles. This suggests a similar evolutionary path for machines used in underwater intervention. Although AUVs perform some subsea tasks extremely well, they are limited to a relatively small variety of tasks. WROVs are known for their flexibility and ability to perform a large variety of tasks, but they cannot perform all the tasks easily or well. Bringing some AUV technologies to WROVs will significantly improve productivity without decreasing capability. The most promising technology that currently sets AUVs apart from ROVs is, in fact, intelligence: the ability of an AUV to know where it is, to accurately move long distances, and to use its tools in a coordinated and automatic fashion. This paper discusses techniques for applying intelligence to WROVs and describes some benefits. For example, using intelligence technologies will allow the iWROV to accurately hover, to transit to a different location under automated control, and to provide integrated position control of on-board tools such as manipulators, pan-tilt units, and laser range finders. Like an AUV, the iWROV would be able to follow a path generated from survey information. Unlike an AUV, however, the iWROV could stop at pre-planned locations to perform remote interventions (such as executing automatic manipulator movements) and would be under human observation in case real-time adjustments were needed. An intelligent vehicle needs to sense its environment accurately and use all of the information in a coordinated fashion. The iWROV uses this intelligence to make its tasks safer, easier, and more efficient. This has the obvious benefit of less time in the water and hence less cost for the operator. This paper discusses: the characteristics of an iWROV control system; implementation of intelligent control on the Quest iWROV; typical iWROV tasks; and the future of iWROVs.