Second Summary / Reader Response Draft of Deep Trekker DTG3 ROV

October 06, 2022

Second Summary / Reader Response Draft of Deep Trekker DTG3 ROV

The webpage “DTG3 Package” (2022) promotes one of Deep Trekker’s creations, an underwater DTG3 remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The ROV is packed with various features with different capabilities to make an exceptionally functional rover. One of its features that is highlighted in this Deep Trekker (2022) DTG3 website is its incredible flexibility to maneuver underwater due to its rover design and light weight of 8.5kg. Its stability is also another outstanding feature as driven by its precise thrusters with Deep Trekker's very own BRIDGE software programmed for auto stability function. Aside from its basic functions, it is capable of customizing with multiple add-ons to boost its functionality. Some of the commonly used add-ons are mostly various visual sensors for different types of sea inspections, sample extracting or collector tools, and additional existing parts of the DTG3 to increase its agility.

With all these features and functions, Deep Trekker’s DTG3 ROVs could easily stand off as the best lightweight inspection class rover in the underwater ROVs industry. The DTG3 weight and history could easily stand out as the best of all of other Deep Trekker’s underwater ROVs and other available underwater ROVs in the industry, though its downside will be the cost of purchasing the DTG3 ROV.

Deep Trekker currently provides three types of underwater ROVs, namely the DTG3, Pivot, and Revolution. All of them serve the same purpose, to be able to maneuver underwater for inspection and service of the project. Other than those three, Deep Trekker did develop a series before the DTG3, which is called DTG2. While they stated on their website that DTG2 was once their prideful ROV, DTG3 will inherit DTG2 features and enhance them, while including some of its own unique features. The Revolution ROV was then created as an enhanced version of DTG3, targeting specific users who need heavy underwater inspections. The Pivot was created to be the balance between the two, sacrificing some of its enhanced inspection capability for a more portable version of the Revolution. Although it is better for the ROV to have more functions, it is weight poses a challenge for the ROV's flexibility underwater while being functional. According to Anwar et al.(2016), the weight will affect the density of the vehicle as it approaches the density of the water, which its relation could be seen in the graph as the ROV with water pump chambers pumps in water to increase its weight. As density is directly proportional to weight, the higher the weight will result in a higher density of ROVs, which will affect their mobility, flexibility, and stability as more force is needed to maneuver the ROV. With that information and the specification chart provided on Deep Trekker (2022) website, the DTG3 could out beat the Pivot and Revolution in terms of flexibility due to it being the lightest in weight and flexibility is one of the important features to consider for inspection. The DTG3 flexibility makes it the golden sample to drive innovation for other better Deep Trekker’s ROVs, which support being the best lightweight inspection rover in the underwater between its manufacture products.

In the underwater inspection ROV industry, there are many well-known ROVs for example the Seatronics Versatile and Lightweight Observation ROV(VALOR). The specification website Geo-matching stated that the VALOR is weight in air of 50kg, which is about 6 times more than the DTG3 ROV at 8.5kg. Due to it being heavier than DTG3, it will be denser than the DTG3, which will also affect the flexibility and mobility just like the Pivot and Revolution from the same manufacturing company. This also supports that the DTG3 weight beats the other competitors, being the best lightweight underwater ROV overall.

While the DTG3 is the best lightweight underwater ROV overall, its cost is more than the available ROV in the market. For example, the Chasing Dory is cheaper than the DTG3, with each being USD $649 and $8500 respectively. The cost could be affected by the cost of making the product, as the Chasing has only fewer functions than the DTG3. According to

https://www.deeptrekker.com/news/increasing-diver-safety

https://www.deeptrekker.com/resources/rov-buying-guide

https://www.deeptrekker.com/news/dtg2-underwater-rov

https://www.deeptrekker.com/products/underwater-rov/dtg3-b

About weight:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7429932

https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-density-and-weight/

Comparing other ROV:

https://geo-matching.com/rovs-remotely-operated-underwater-vehicles/valor

https://geo-matching.com/compare/efa641c3-c207-4037-a7d0-8c634ccb6fa7\

Rebuttal:

https://uia.brage.unit.no/uia-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2778939/Khoygane%20Sevan%20Esagholian.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y