Underwater Vehicles at the Digital Ocean Lab
The Digital Ocean Lab operates a range of underwater vehicles designed to support high-resolution data collection, survey, inspection and research tasks. These vehicles are built for flexibility, featuring open ROS2 architecture for custom sensor integration and flexible mission configurations. The fleet includes Inspection Class ROV, Compact ROTV, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, and lightweight BlueROV Systems.
Applications and Use Cases
- Seafloor Mapping and Exploration
- High-resolution sonar, LiDAR and cameras across all vehicles allow for detailed mapping of underwater terrains and habitats.
- Infrastructure Inspection
- The Inspection Class ROV and BlueROV systems are ideal for inspecting pipelines, cables and offshore structures, with the ROV’s manipulator arm enabling direct interaction.
- Environmental Monitoring
- Sensors integrated with various platforms support water quality assessment, sediment transport studies and biodiversity research.
- Object Detection and Recovery
- Sonar, cameras and navigation systems enable precise location, classification and recovery of underwater objects, including debris and UXO.
- Safe Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance
- Obstacle detection systems across platforms ensure collision-free operations in complex environments.
- Data Collection for AI and Machine Learning
- Platforms generate structured, high-quality datasets for machine learning model training, supporting automated detection and classification tasks.