Wireless Submarine Robot (Subbot) Using Radio Frequency (RF)

Abstract

Submarine has becomes one of the important tools in many fields such as in research studies, education, and also for an exploration hobby underwater. A submarine is a watercraft which is capable of independent operation underwater. For general purposes, the submarine is operated via RC (radio control) which is often used in underwater monitoring. By using the RC submarine, it can reduce the risk of being underwater by human physically when conducting a research activity. Currently, the available RC submarines in Malaysian’s market are expensive and it is hard to find due to limited supplier as well as there is no local product of the RC submarine yet. So, this project is conducted to come out with an underwater robotic that has a new design which is a RC submarine with onboard wireless camera using prototyping methodology. The main components used to build this RC submarine are readily made submarine toy, controller system and wireless water resistant camera. Furthermore, a computer will be used as a remote to control the submarine. As a result of this project, a RC submarine with onboard wireless water resistant camera prototype will be invented with an optimum cost and using a good quality parts. Based on the specification given by the toy submarine, this prototype RC submarine can dive in as far as 30 meter underwater by taking on water ballast and expelling to surface again, or dynamically by forces acting on the dive planes. The best place to use it is in clear, see-through water such as a clean aquarium, not-too-heavily chlorinated pool, or a freshwater lake that is free from garbage. The specialty of this RC submarine is it uses a wireless water resistant camera which makes it able to capture photos and videos underwater clearly. For research, education and hobby purposes, this RC submarine can be used in a fish tank to capture photos and videos without interfering the nature life of the fishes inside the tank while for monitoring purpose, this RC submarine can be used to monitor inside an aquarium to find out if there is any crack on the aquarium’s glass