The competition “Russian Open Cup for Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROV)” and the Round Table “Experience and Prospects for the Use of Marine Robotic Systems (MRTC)” were held in Astrakhan from March 21 to 27.

The Open Cup was traditionally held in the equipped swimming pool of the Corporate Training Center of LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft LLC. 15 teams from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Severodvinsk, Volgograd and Astrakhan took to the start.

Participants had to overcome an obstacle course at the bottom of the pool, use a manipulator to install a model of a connector in a glass, read the inscription inside a life-size model of an MI-8 helicopter submerged in water, and retrieve to the surface a model of a flight recorder located inside the cockpit. To complete the tasks, devices were used, most of which were the teams’ own innovative developments. The panel of judges assessed the speed of completing the task, the cleanliness and correctness of obstacles. ROV operators had to perform maneuvers in an environment as close as possible to performing tasks on sunken objects.

The competition ended with a Round Table with the participation of representatives of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of RAS, the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Marine Rescue Service", the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, the Center for Underwater Research of the Russian Geographical Society, the St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University, the Lower Volga Department of Rostekhnadzor for the Astrakhan Region, and the branch of Northern Federal University in Severodvinsk, JSC MAGE, LLC Fertoing, Federation of Ship Modeling Sports of the Astrakhan Region, LLC Akvaspetsservice and Tatishchev Astrakhan State University.

The participants exchanged experience in operating remotely controlled underwater vehicles and discussed the prospects for the development of underwater robotics. The tone for the work of the Round Table was set by Boris Rozman, head of the video technology laboratory of the Institute of Oceanology of RAS, who was at the origins of the ROV competition in Astrakhan and is the developer and manufacturer of the popular Gnome underwater vehicles. Boris Yakovlevich spoke about the evolution of underwater robots and the development of the program for the production of devices of the Gnome family. The new generation underwater robot Gnome is a small search and inspection vehicle with a maximum working depth of 300 m, thanks to its size, capable of penetrating the internal areas of sunken ships and other hard-to-reach underwater objects. It is equipped with two high-definition cameras, a rotating gripper and depth and heading sensors. It is actively used in work in the Caspian Sea for inspecting pipelines and abandoned wells. It is also used to monitor the condition of flooded radioactive waste in the Kara Sea.

Detailed information is available on the website https://gnomrov.com/