pic: Front of ROV ALLAN at dawn for the news

[yodameister]

Originally Posted by Jon Jack

Not to take anything away from FIRST, but if any of think designing these ROVs is easy think again. There's another dimension you must take into account designing things for an underwater application. It's not like you can just snap something together and see how it runs. You've got to make sure things are sealed properly, that electrical connections are isolated from the water (you can't use regular old quick connects, hence the existence of companies like SubConn and Odu), you've also got to worry about how the weight of an accessory will effect the buoyancy of your device, plus you've got to take into account how some materials will react and corrode underwater and what treatments/surface finishes can help prevent that from happening. It can be quiet the challenge...

You are sooooo correct about this. This was our first try at underwater and we learned the hard way about water testing without having the power turned on. We went through a few cameras until we figured out how to correctly waterproof something.