HIGH-SPEED RS-232 FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION-SYSTEM FOR UNDERWATER REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLES

The design and implementation of a communication system for an underwa ter remotely operated vehicle (ROV) are presented. The system is assum ed to be composed of a remotely operated vehicle driven by a set of se ven thrusters, a tethering cable including power supply cables and two fibres for communication (the function of which is to transmit and mo nitor information) and a surface master controlling computer. A second slave computer with its appropriate A/D and D/A interfacing cards is included in the ROV. The design and implementation of the fibre optic communication system between these two computers are presented in this paper. The appropriate control information is acquired and suitable c ontrol commands are send to the ROV through this system. With special RS-232C port handling, transfer rates up to 115.2 kbps are achieved. T his communication system is fast enough for telemetry and control sign als and can be used in a variety of related applications.