Date of Award

2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Ocean Engineering

Department

Ocean Engineering

First Advisor

Stephen Licht

Abstract

The scientific community has utilized unmanned underwater vehicles for ocean exploration since the mid-twentieth century, resulting in a well-cultivated and ever-changing discipline of ocean technology. The deep-sea environment, specifically, presents unique and harsh criteria due to the increased pressure found at depth and the vehicle components necessary to overcome it. The size and weight of underwater vehicles typically increase as operational depth increases, resulting in physically large systems with high operational costs to accommodate deep-sea research. This project first characterized the effect of length and diameter on carbon fiber pressure housing’s depth tolerance. It then leveraged this data to reduce the weight and size of an existing 300 meter rated ROV by 8.6% and 26%, respectively, through the replacement of the vehicle’s frame and buoyancy foam with sealed carbon fiber structural components and the addition of a fiber-optic microtether. The resulting vehicle ROV FiberFish had a weight in air of 116 Newtons and a size of 0.05 cubic meters. This project then went on to expand the vehicle’s theoretical depth rating to 1000 meters without notably changing its weight or form factor. A system of this size and capability directly serves to increase accessibility to the world’s oceans, and provides a baseline model for future design of underwater vehicles attempting to minimize size and implement structural buoyancy to their architecture.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.