Amphibious remotely operated vehicle for use in explorations and general surveillance

This paper tackles the challenge of creating surveillance system that aims to function both over firm ground and underwater. Prototype development accomplished through manual fabrication of specific materials based on computer aided drafting and design software. The device is mainly composed of aluminums, nylon engineering plastics, acrylate polymers and polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs). These materials were chosen for their low cost, lightness, durability and buoyancy characteristics. Device operation and sensing relies mainly on the circuit board created which incorporates an ATMEGA644 microcontroller. The microcontroller was chosen due to its low cost, low power, high performance, highly programmable and versatility for motor control. Firmware programming was done using the specific Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the Atmel group of microcontrollers known as CodeVisionAVR. Software programming was done using Visual Basic to apply Graphical User Interface. Firmware and software programs were compiled into a single executable file for ease of use with any other computer running the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. The objective of this thesis is to create a device that is able to move both on land and underwater and can be controlled remotely using a computer program equipped with a GUI while maintaining all functionality on both terrains. A specific executable program was created for this purpose and Local Area Network (LAN) technology was used to increase the operating range of the digital controller of the device