Why Mini-ROVs Should Act as Dive Supervisor's Eyes

Kiara Vallier | February 22nd, 2016

An ROV is a valuable tool, which is controlled from deck to watch over commercial dive teams. It is a great tool for giving divers the ability to gauge new areas and “get close” to dangerous objects without putting themselves in danger, but there are still some dive missions that involve divers swimming in familiar areas to perform tasks that they are used to doing.

Additionally, whenever work is undertaken below the water, there are always the added risks of ocean currents, marine wildlife and other elements that increase the dangers of the job compared to if the same job were to be performed on land. That is why having a member of the dive team on board the vessel or on shore watch over the divers performing the work is a huge advantage.

The way it stands now, there must be supervisors that are not in the water who watch over their divers in the water. This seems like common sense and it is easy to understand why this is necessary: if anything goes wrong in the water or someone’s oxygen runs out or tank malfunctions there is someone to help respond. Having a supervisor on board always means that there is backup if an accident happens.

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But what if something goes wrong with the dive and the supervisor is not able to respond as quickly as possible because communication between land and water is not as good as it could be? What if the supervisor is unable to see their divers and something goes wrong?

This is the moment that having an ROV would come in handy. By adding a mini-ROV like the Deep Trekker DTG3 ROV to a commercial dive team, supervisors are never left guessing what is happening below the water because they have their own set of eyes down there. By deploying an ROV to monitor the divers, supervisors are able to respond as soon as something happens because they are made aware of the situation immediately.

Using the DTG3 to monitor divers can also prevent future accidents from unfolding. With the ability to record what’s taking place with a DVR, commercial dive teams are able to review the dive afterwards to ensure that everything was handled properly and address any unforeseen situations or challenges that took place.

So, why add a mini-ROV to your dive team? Because it just makes sense.