Friends! What’s better than a BlueROV2? A BlueROV2 that can run indefinitely! We are so ecstatic to announce today’s newest addition to the Blue Robotics product line – introducing the Outland Technology Power Supply for the BlueROV2! Check out the launch video below and read on for all the details! But first, watt is so great about power over tether?
Blue Robotics X Outland Technology
Our friends at Outland Technology have been working in the subsea technology industry for over 35 years (!) and we could not resist a collaboration when the opportunity arose. It’s been super fun to work together on this product and we can’t wait to see what future ideas spark from this partnership!
Hi friends! We are excited to introduce the newly redesigned 2″ Locking Watertight Enclosure Series! There are lots of little changes that will make this generation of watertight housing components more robust and secure – let us share some background and explain the key features! 🔑🔒
The 4″ Watertight Enclosure Series was one of the first enabling products we launched back in 2014 – at the time, we were just looking to provide an easy, affordable solution to keeping things dry. Along with the 3″ Enclosure, they became one of the building blocks to the BlueROV2. Their configurability made them fit for a host of applications – we’ve seen them in countless robotics competition vehicles, as part of a diver helmet, as sensing devices on much larger vehicles, and as the main component of our dearly beloved, Disco Pancake. Users of the enclosures were pushing them to the limits, and it was time that we gave some TLC to one of our most ubiquitous products. We’re starting that off today with the WTE2 update!
Disco Pancake starring in the Indicator Light promo video.
Key Features
Locking Cord
The most notable difference from version to version is the locking cord. The locking cord is made of plastic and can be inserted into a machined chamber between the tube and the flange, retaining the flange to the tube so that they cannot be separated.
Hello everyone! Today we have two new products to announce: the Ping360 Scanning Imaging Sonar and the updated M200 Motor! We’ve put together a launch video for the Ping360 and you can read about both products below.
The Ping360 Scanning Imaging Sonar
The Ping360 sonar is a mechanical scanning sonar. It’s designed primarily to be used on the BlueROV2 and other underwater ROVs for navigation in low-visibility water conditions, but it’s also suited for applications such as inspection, obstacle avoidance, target location and tracking, autonomous systems development, and more!
When mounted on an ROV, the Ping360 gives you a top-down view of the ROV’s surroundings. You can see echoes from objects like ropes, walls, dock pilings, rocks, shipwrecks, boats, and any other structures or objects that reflect sound waves. With that, you have reference points to navigate from, regardless of water visibility, and you can locate important features in the water quickly.
The Ping360 image overlaid on a top-down shot to illustrate how the sonar aids in navigation in low visibility.
Like our Ping Echosounder, the Ping360 interface with the open-source Ping Viewer application to provide a realtime view of sonar data. The sonar also has an open communication interface so that you can grab the data directly for other applications.
The Ping360 is available today for $1,975 USD, less than half the price of any other scanning sonar on the market! You can read more about it on the product page here.
Updated M200 Motor
We have an exciting update to one of our earliest products, the M200 Motor.
Hello vampires, werewolves, and otherkin! A few weeks ago, the BR coven traveled down to San Diego for the 22nd Annual RoboSub Competition! The missions were fierce and the life force was strong, with a record 54 teams participating in this year’s court!
TRANSDEC-vania
What is RoboSub, you ask?
RoboSub is an exciting underwater robotics competition in which teams of high school and college students from around the world design and build an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). These vehicles are designed to autonomously navigate through a series of tasks that mimic ongoing research in Autonomous Underwater Systems. This event also serves to develop relationships between young engineers and the organizations developing and using unmanned and autonomous technologies. This year, 600 students on 54 teams from 13 countries had the task of Slaying the Vampire!
(more…)
Hello all, welcome to our official recap of the RoboBoat competition in South Daytona, Florida!
As some of you may know, Blue Robotics and RoboNation have a long, mutually inspiring history and BR has been lucky enough to sponsor RoboSub for 5 years now as well as RobotX for the first time in December, 2018. After years of partaking in the fun, inspiring, and innovative world that is RoboNation, it was only natural to want to join in on more competitions as well, leading us to sponsor RoboBoat for the first time in 2019!
Friends, hello! A couple of weeks ago we attended (for the 4th year in a row!) the MATE International ROV Competition and we are excited as ever for the future of marine robotics. Before we dive into a recap, let’s take a look at some throwbacks from previous competitions!
But First, What is MATE?
The MATE International ROV (remotely operated vehicle or underwater robot) competition challenges students to learn and creatively apply STEM skills to solve real-world problems and strengthen their critical thinking, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Throughout the school year, students spend lotsss of time designing, prototyping, engineering, and testing their ROVs, all in preparation for the regional events that take place across the country and around the world which then feed into the international championship.
A brief history of BR and MATE
In 2016 the event was held at the NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Texas – a pretty epic location for our first time! The 2016 competition highlighted how technologies developed for use in the harsh ocean environment can also be used in outer space – and vice versa.
Rusty with Marty Klein, the father of side scan sonar 😝 (left) and a competition vehicle (right).
Our customers are are some of the most innovative creatures out there – they are studying marine life, exploring shipwrecks, surveying coral reefs, and advancing human knowledge of the ocean. The products in this update will be familiar but they are new to our store – they’ve been added to help make our customers lives a little easier, so we may continue to push the boundaries of ocean exploration together!
Updated Water Linked Underwater GPS / BlueROV2 Integration Kit R2
This kit provides a few additional cables for the Water Linked Underwater GPS system to allow it to seamlessly integrate with the BlueROV2 system – the R2 version is better integrated with FXTI and uses Binder 770 connectors.
The Battery Cell Checker plugs into the battery balance plug and tells you cell voltages, overall pack voltage, and overall state-of-charge. It’s a great field tool to check your batteries and make sure they are ready for each dive! We keep one with us during every dive.
Hello friends! It is competition season and we are beyond excited to spend the next few months supporting and recognizing the hard work and innovation being brought to our industry by the students of STEM. This season we are hosting a rolling, themed photo contest with prizes (and hashtags) each step of the way! Let’s check it out…
Competition ROV designed and built by Jesuit High School Robotics.
Entry
The photo contest will be broken down into four categories, each with its own theme, hashtag, and prizes. Submissions for any category can be made any time before the closing date of that category; please note the individual submission closing dates so you can be sure to enter your photo into the desired category before it’s closed! Once we have closed all entries and we’ve announced all themed entry winners, we will announce the grand prize winner!
Hi friends, happy Tuesday! We are (finally) ready to release a product that many of you have been patiently awaiting… introducing the Ping Sonar Altimeter and Echosounder (plus other fun things)!
Check out the new product video below!
Ping Sonar Altimeter and Echosounder
The Ping sonar is a multipurpose single-beam echosounder. It can be used as an altimeter for ROV sand AUVs, for bathymetry work aboard a USV, as an obstacle avoidance sonar, and more. The Ping combines a compact form factor and 300 meter depth rating with an open source user interface and development libraries to create a powerful new tool for marine robotics!
The Ping has anodized aluminum case with the sonar transducer on one side. The other side has tapped mounting holes and the Ping comes with a mounting bracket that makes it easy to install on the BlueROV2 and in other applications. It comes with a one meter cable with a pre-installed cable penetrator and is rated to an operating depth of 300m.
The Ping has a bottom-finding algorithm that locks onto the strongest response and returns the distance and measurement confidence. The Ping works great as an altimeter on the BlueROV2 but can be used in all sorts of applications from tidal monitoring to obstacle avoidance to autonomous terrain following.
Happy 2019, everyone! New year, lotssss of new products – we can’t weight to share what’s in store 😉 We’re starting off the year with a couple of updated ROV components: Stainless Steel Ballast Weight and Moisture Indicating Silica Gel Desiccant Bags.
Stainless Steel Ballast Weight
The new Stainless Steel Ballast Weight is a drop in replacement for original lead weight. Stainless steel is less toxic to the environment and to humans!
We’ve repackaged the silica gel so they come in prepackaged in 6 individual bags. Any humidity inside your Watertight Enclosure will cause condensation to collect when placed in the water, and this desiccant will eliminate humidity inside the enclosure so that you can clearly see out of it.
