MARCH 16--A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) from Videoray LLC (Exton, PA: www.videoray.com) was used as a search tool for surveying an underwater area and looking for fire damage to boats belonging to President George W. Bush and US Secretary of Commerce Don Evans. A US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms recovery team carried out the underwater probe last month in an Austin TX, marina to assess fire-related destruction and locate recoverable assets. Using the lightweight ROV eliminated the need to use divers, who otherwise would have had to confront cables, steel supports, and unknown obstacles, as well as possible personal hazards such as hypothermia, decompression, and accidental injury.
The 14 x 9 x 8.5-in., 8-lb. ROV comes in an anodized aluminum housing equipped with a manipulator arm and a 250-ft tether containing 110/220-Vac power and video signal output wires. It contains a color CCD camera that provides 350-horizontal line resolution, a NTSC/PAL video output, and 5-lux minimum illumination. Two side-mounted, 20-W variable halogen lamps brightened the search area.
The camera captured color video images of the designated underwater area at depths to 70 ft in and delivered video images to a PC screen on the surface via an RS-232 interface port. Several retrievable items were recovered with the aid of scanning sonar. The ROV is capable of working to depths of 500 ft.
