Have you ever wondered how scientists explore the bottom of the ocean? What about how oil rigs are assembled and maintained beneath the waves?
The first thought that generally comes to mind is the image of a couple of people crammed into a little goldfish bowl that can motor its way to the depths.
While it’s true that submersibles of all different shapes and sizes are sent down to the bottom of the sea with humans inside of them, these missions can be very dangerous to the pilots and crew if something were to go wrong.
Fortunately, we have other safer and cheaper options available to us. Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs)! Read on to learn more about ROVs and the opportunities available to students and teachers at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, one of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium’s educational partners.
ROVs have leashes
Just like drones you see flying through the sky, ROVs are almost like drones of the sea. As the pilot, you can sit in the comfort of your ship or station and direct your ROV into the inky depths. Don’t zoom away too fast though because your ROV has a leash. One of the main differences between an ROV and a submersible or an ROV and a drone is that ROVs have a cable that connects them back to their ship. This cable is known as the tether and because of it, ROVs can provide live video from deep in the ocean and respond quickly to commands from the pilot.
ROVs come in all different shapes and sizes from micro ROVs you can hold in your hands to heavy working ROVs which can be larger than an SUV and weigh thousands of pounds! ROV Deep Discoverer, weighs almost 10,000 pounds and is bigger than a car! With video capability, manipulator arms and different arrangements of lights and motors, the design possibilities are nearly endless.
A variety of industries and professions utilize ROVs. ROVs can be used in aquaculture systems to monitor the health of the animals being farmed. ROVs are also used to find sunken objects and assist with salvage operations, search and rescues, and infrastructure inspections, like bridges and dams. ROVs are deployed by the military, by offshore oil and gas producers, and by scientists in many different fields. In most situations, ROVs offer a safer alternative to putting divers in the water.
Need for ROV pilots is growing
The uses for ROVs keep growing, which means the needs for interested pilots is growing as well. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2028 there will be over 10.5 million STEM-related jobs. Inspiring students’ interest in these potential careers using an exciting tool like ROVs is a great way to help us prepare our students to succeed in the future.
Student interest in STEM fields is important for everyone’s future, and ROVs are a way to integrate learning, hands-on activities and fun into a lesson. Students visiting the Dauphin Island Sea Lab can participate in ROVing the Gulf, a class where they build and test their own ROVs after learning about this technology. Deep ocean exploration, physical oceanography and other undersea technologies are discussed, but ROVs are the stars of the show.
As cool as it would be to put multi-million-dollar ROVs in the hands of fifth graders, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Discovery Hall Programs educators stick with smaller models built out of PVC to allow students to model the engineering process. Rarely are two ROV designs completely identical. We also invite teachers down for workshops and show them the basics of ROVs and ways that the teachers can incorporate them into their curriculum.
Teachers are always welcome to join us for a week of Technology in Marine Science and are encouraged to visit our webpage at for more information.
ROV competitions spark interest
Even if ROVs don’t fit a school’s curriculum, they can be an excellent way to get students involved in STEM as an extracurricular activity. ROV competitions provide students with a great project that gets them excited and involved with undersea technology. There are many different types of engineering competitions and challenges available to students. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab is the regional host site for two ROV competitions. On Feb. 8, 2020, Discovery Hall Programs hosted their first-ever annual SeaPerch Competition, which featured teams from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
If you are interested in competing you can find more information online at https://www.disl.org/dhp/seaperch-rov-competition. If you missed out, never fear, because each year Discovery Hall Programs also host the annual Northern Gulf Coast regional competition for the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) program. This year, the competition will occur on April 24-26, and teams can register up until April 3. Feel free to check it out!
If you are interested in learning more about ROVs and DISL’s marine technology program, go to https://www.disl.org/dhp/rov-programs, contact us at [email protected] or call 251-861-2141 ext. 7515.
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