Should be called an ROV but people have now started calling them Drones, just like they did with Quadcopters, I much preferred that.
Anyway, here’s a few pics of todays outing. This is 100 metres deep. Loads of sediment so not too clear.
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BTW. The white thing at the bottom is a salmon fillet in the grabber claw we were using for bait.
Excellent pictures. How far down were you, and was this a tethered drone/ROV? More than ‘air’ drones, I’ve always been interested in underwater related vehicles (so ROVs etc)…infact before getting my MJX, for a few years I was really looking at getting an ROV…I often go to Sri Lanka (pre-pandemic) as my family is from there and since a child, I’ve always wanted to use an underwater ‘drone’ to explore the Indian Ocean around there…thing is, some models are tethered which kind of puts me off as I’m limited to how far and deep I can explore (I’ll be operating from on land or on a boat). Mind if I ask what drone/ROV this is? I’ve been looking at the one from Blueye Robotics …seen quite a few folks post videos on their Facebook page exploring underwater wrecks from around the globe and must confess it does look stunning…though I am learning that visibility can be huge issue.
@FriktionRC This was a little short of 100m depth. It is a Chasing M2, I’ve had 3 ROVs so far and this is the first one that has any real controllability, because it has 8 vectored thrusters so you can do any manoeuvre you can think of. I doubt if you would keep an untethered drone for very long, you would probably lose it on the first dive! Also, underwater there is no position available, no GPS and you wouldn’t have a video feed without a cable. That’s the main issue, once you’re out of sight you have no idea where you are.
Depth limitations are more to do with pressure rather than length of cable. At its deepest, 100m, the pressure is nearly 150 psi. So you have to have a pretty sturdy device.
My pictures above are not too clear because the water in the loch is very peaty and there’s a huge amount of sediment. As soon as you go near the bottom, it kicks up a massive cloud of sediment. Also, there is no light down there so what you see is illuminated by the ROV lights and you get a lot of backscatter. I’ve improved it a bit with lights on outriggers to get them further away from the lens.
Great fun, but there’s no insurance available so you have to be very careful not to get snagged on anything down at greater depths than is recoverable by a friendly diver!
The agents for Chasing in the UK are www.alphageo.com. Very helpful people.
I haven’t experienced the Blueye Robotics ROVs but they are much more expensive, like 4 times the price. I can thoroughly recommend the Chasing M2.
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I dunno - underwater drones seems quite apt.
… for you. 
Thanks Wayne, you’re absolutely right.
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Thanks Rich. It still hurts!
I know. I meant Dave.
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The dementia’s really kicking in now!
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Thanks for the reply…and sorry 
Completely missed you had mentioned the depth in your original post!
Thanks for all the info, especially about the need for tethering when at depth and the reasons behind it. I love watching nature and exploratory programmes where they go to the depths and though some are basically mini subs, I do know many drones are tethered so no idea why I assumed these much smaller drones that ‘we’ use would be any difference. Thanks also for the link…I’m definitely going to do some research as I’ve been itching to get one for many many years…(watching diving programmes showing the dives down to the Mariana Trench, raising the Titanic, Blue Planet and films like The Abyss have a lot to answer for hahaha)
Much appreciated 
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You’re welcome. 
Ooh, would love one of these out here, but couldn’t justify the extra cost… haven’t really used the sky-drone (as they’ll now be called) here either, as there’s an airport nearby that gets in the way of all the good angles.
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