Phantom
version francaise

General Characteristics

      The Phantom 500 is an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) which  is controlled from a surface operating station. It can be both manually controlled, using joysticks in a surface consollette, or automatically controlled by a surface computer. The operating station is linked to the ROV by an ombilical cable, trhough which command signals are sent to the ROV and sensor outputs are brought up from the ROV.
The vehicle is powered by three thrusters: two horizontal that control its displacement in the horizontal plane (forward, back, turn), and one vertical thruster for control in the vertical plane. A fourth lateral thruster can be added for increased maneuvrability.
The vehicle is equipped with a rather general set of sensors
  • leak detectors
  • 3-axis compass
  • gyroscope
  • depth gauge
  • incremental counters (rotation speed of the motors)
  • video camera
  • profiler sonar
  • altimeter
Depth rate : vehicle 150  meters, and the camera housing is tested up to 100 meters.
Buoyancy : positive (floats if no control is applied)
Size : (109 x 51 x 51 ) cms (l x w x h)
Weight : 45 Kgs, around 80 kg with the complete sensor suite
Cable : neutrally buoyant, 120 meters.
Camera : Sony color camera (PAL) with pan and tilt
Sonar : Tritech profiler, dual frequency 1.21MHz/580 KHz, maximum range :  300 meters, depth rated for 1000 meters.
Altimeter : Tritech, beamwidth 6o, frequency 500KHz, range : 0-50 meters

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at rendas@i3s.unice.fr