OpenROV Trident
(Aug 2021, BES)
Monmouth College purchased the OpenROV Trident underwater drone ($1,500) in November of 2018. This was purchased using LeSuer Endowment. Subsequently, the Trident controller was purchased ($400) along with an additional "topside wifi" unit since the gasket was not properly placed and resulted in water leaking in the unit.
The unit was taken to Forfar Field Station on Andros Island, Bahamas during the College's 1st January Term. The course description for Chemistry 290: Immersive Experience on Andros Island, Bahamas and blog are linked.
The OpenROV Trident apparently was sold to SoFar, but is no longer available for purchase. Sofar has been supporting the device until June 2021 (?) but an other company is exploring options to provide software updates.
History
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openrov/openrov-the-open-source-underwater-robot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenROV
http://blog.makezine.com/2012/02/09/openrov-testing-at-hall-city-cave/
MUST READ/SEE --> The story about the OpenROV project resulting in the Trident (with intro video)
Trident being eaten by a Great White Shark
Early video from Bay Area Maker Faire 2016 (San Francisco)
- - this video talks with the co-founder Eric Stackpole
- - they show the original OpenROV unit and then introduce the new Trident
Unboxing video 2 - a few more details
Engineering - "Build Project Description"
Greetings Monmouth College engineering students. I thank you in advance for your efforts to expand the use of the OpenROV Trident underwater drone for underwater exploration. This drone was purchased as a part of the 2019 "J-term" course which traveled to the Forfar Field Station on Andros Island, Bahamas. While operating the drone mainly in the inland blue holes it became apparent that the many degrees of freedom (full 3d movement) added a level of complexity that was not desired.