Submarine/Underwater ROV Engineering

[Instanced]

Hello fellow/prospecting engineers. I'm a Mechanical Engineer, new to this forum, who wants to change focus from aerospace engineering to underwater ROV's or submarine design... and I have no idea where to start. I'm just trying to reach out to anyone currently in those fields to recommend classes or books or something... maybe a job? ;) I've been researching heavily in submarines, ROV's, water depth pressures, sustainability, etc etc because eventually I'd like to build my own... Potentially design my own. I'd love to help the guy who's making the underwater habitat's... the concept of Atlantis blows me away.
Any info is helpful "Knowledge is power... when you know how to use it".
Hope there's a couple engineers here I can talk to in this field.

 

[sixgill]

Your best bet is to join a forum focused on this subject. I can suggest www.rovworld.com. This is one of the best and most widely-used forum's on this subject - globally.

If you've been researching this subject, you already know that there are several classes of ROVs in use. The two main groups are really inspection class (flying "eyeballs") that simply provide a set of eyes for operators to view equipment subsea, and work-class. Work class ROVs are far more complex and can perform a very wide range of tasks in ultra deep water. They include very capable and dexterous manipulators (robotic arms).

There are three major work-class ROV manufacturers in the world (see below). There a fair number more that design and build smaller inspection class vehicles.

Schilling Robotics (www.schilling.com) - only US-based manufacturer and considered the most advanced

Perry Slingsby Systems (www.perryslingsbysystems.com[/URL]) - UK-based with support office in Houston

Soil Machine Dynamics ([url]www.smd.co.uk[/url]) - UK-based

Good luck!

 

[Instanced]

Thanks for the information! I'm definitely more interested in the "work-class" ROV's... I definitely played with armatron when I was a kid.

Hell ya!