Yeovil-based small ROVs and survey services provider, Atlantas Marine, has made its first move into ROV instrumentation with the design and manufacture of a video overlay device intended to make cathodic protection surveys easier and faster.

Being shown in public for the first time at Oceanology International, the new tool has been designed to display the readings obtained by a cathodic protection probe as an overlay on the ROV’s video display.

This creates a permanent record and eliminates the need for the ROV operator to make handwritten notes of individual probe readings while surveying the condition of a vessel’s anodes.

The CP video overlay unit consists of a small black box that can be interfaced with the ROV’s cathodic measurement probe and the pilot’s video display. The reading obtained by the probe is shown as part of the ROV’s video display which is creating a permanent record of the dive. By reviewing the recording later it becomes possible to relate the data to the exact location in a way that efficiently avoids any mistakes or ambiguity.

Atlantas Marine managing director, Charlie Foll, said: “We have been successfully supplying VideoRay ROVs for many years and the steady increase in the amount of survey and inspection work that we undertake has given us a detailed insight into the practicalities of ROV operation. Our engineering team is second to none so when we encounter a technical problem we are able to solve it ourselves. With this combination of skills I suppose it’s a natural progression that we should start making our own tools. Normally the tools and instruments supplied for ROVs are manufactured by companies that specialise in making things at the direction of their customers. Being a manufacturer as well as an end-user puts our first product in a unique position and it is now probably just a question of time before we devise and present more ROV tools and accessories to the market.”