An Architecture for the Conceptual Design of Underwater Exploration Vehicles

This paper addresses an architecture for the conceptual design of remotely operated vehicles (ROV). The proposed architecture is based in an extensive literature review and the experience acquired during 20 years with the development of three ROV systems that where designed for underwater inspection. The ROV is divided into five subsystems: vehicle, surface station, surface/vehicle interface, control system, and software. For each subsystem, functions and tasks are defined, components are listed, interrelations with other subsystems are established, and commonly used alternatives are proposed. The subsystem's division used for the conceptual design process allows one to avoid problems in the advanced stages of the robotic exploration system development