Engineering the deep.

03 — The vehicle

1. Assembly

   Ducted thruster

   One of the vehicle's thrusters, in a 68 × 122 × 68 mm envelope. Sixteen parts, modelled in SolidWorks and exported straight onto this page — the geometry here is the geometry we manufactured.

2. Thrust

   Ducted propeller

   A 54 mm three-blade propeller runs inside a 65 mm duct. The shroud raises static thrust at the low speeds an ROV actually works at, and stops the blades from taking a bite out of anything in the pool.

3. Flow

   Stator vanes

   A swept vane ring sits either side of the propeller. A propeller leaves its wake spinning, and that swirl is thrust pointed sideways — the stators straighten it out and stop the vehicle rolling against its own thrusters.

4. Drive

   Motor and spider mount

   A brushless motor on a three-arm spider, bolted through the duct wall. Holding the motor on open arms instead of a solid bulkhead keeps the flow path clear and lets the motor come out without breaking the frame down.

Static view