ROV by students to feature at US meet

Mumbai: A remote-operated underwater vehicle with a robotic arm, made by engineering students of a city institute will feature at an international technology innovation event to be held in the US later this month. A team of students from Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, who made this robotic vehicle, is the lone team from India selected for the 13th Annual Marine Advanced Technology Education ROV International Competition at Alpena, in Michigan, US being held from June 26-28.

"Team Screwdrivers", as the participants call themselves; will compete against 66 teams from 16 countries including those from Russia, Jordan, Egypt, England, Poland, Hong Kong and Japan, team member Dhairya Sathvara said.

The remote operated vehicle (ROV) built by the team is an underwater vehicle which has a robotic arm, used to pick up, drop and move things under water. It also has a camera to capture underwater photographs and measure the dimensions of the underwater shipwreck; a sensor to check conductivity of designated areas under water and a mechanism to collect microbial samples from shipwrecks. The ROV has been entirely constructed in the college premises within stipulated budget and time frame, Sathvara said. "It was difficult to procure accessories and tools required for building the ROV in India, so we made parts like thrusters used for manoeuvring, waterproof connectors for electronics and aluminium chassis and imported the rest from countries US, Australia and China," he added.

"The ROV can be used for underwater search and rescue missions, research landscapes and to discover aquatic life in deep water bodies," he said.

The earlier teams of the college had participated at NASA's Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida and at Human Explorer Rover Challenge at Marshall Space Flight Centre, Alabama, he said.