It might seem kind of basic, but there's weren't many books available to a budding ROV designer, so we started wherever we could.

Build Your Own Underwater Robot

This book is designed for the budding scientist interested in ROV and other underwater projects. It's aim is toward science fair projects, and makes it very easy for anyone to start out.

The first ROV is very easy to construct for a grown up, and to have a little fun with it, involve your kids at the same time, you'll both be glad you did :)

We started by building the first ROV (named the Seaperch), following the instructions to the letter. I had my children help me out a bit - Steve. It went together with little difficulty, I was tempted to beef up the thrusters a bit, but decided to give the author's version a try first.

Here's some pics of the basic frame as it sat on my workbench:

Here's some pics from right after it's first launch: Sorry about the duct tape, forgot to remove it for the pics (was only used to hold some weights on while we figured out the right ballast etc...):

We bought enough material to build two, so while the kids enjoy playing with the first one, we can start working on an improved design... Our customized version sports a camera, lights, and a gripper. These shouldn't be too difficult to integrate into the existing design.

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