I have been working on my DIY underwater ROV (remotely operated vehicle) for a fair while. It is going to be an underwater robot, sometimes people call them remote controlled submarines.
I have moved some of the development to my Professional site:
In the interim, I am going to have a 6 mm Acrylic Facsimile of the HDPE frame (High Density Polyethylene) produced by my friend Bob Clough.
This clear frame is made up of dimensionally identical parts, (other than 10 mm vs 6 mm thick material) the internal volume and mounting hole locations will be representative of the final construction. Where as the HDPE frame will have the M4 holes will counterbored to accept socket heads machine screws and allow them to be flush with the surface, in this version I will use Button head machine screws..
The frame for my robot is made up of three different components; The base plate, the two sides, and the four top plates, these will be held together with M4 button head machine screws and nuts.
Once Bob has cut the frame for me, I will assemble it using M4 button head machine screws, and then once I have confirmed this fits together accurately, I will then probably use solvent acrylic welding adhesive to hold it together rigidly in addition to the button heads.
This frame will allow me to do development work on the thrusters, lights and other axillary equipment, and confirm the functionality and location of fixing points.
While I am waiting for the laser cut parts, I will probably do some more development on the thruster nacelles, and the propeller design.
