16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

112 16 th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology Graham Scott 1 , Robert MacKintosh 1 , Paolo Croce 1 , Toby Gane 1 & Hefin Meara 2 1 Wessex Archaeology, UK 2 Historic England, UK An ROV revolution? Using the new generation of low-cost battery powered ROVs for subsea archaeological work A new type of very low-cost remotely operated vehicle (ROV) has been introduced in the last few years, benefitting from advances in drone and battery technology. Substituting high capacity LIPO batteries for surface power whilst still retaining useful performance, these subsea vehicles are easy to deploy, pilot and maintain. For their size and cost they offer impressive inspection and survey capabilities, in- cluding photogrammetry, imaging sonar and acoustic positioning, at a fraction of the cost of similar small ROVs of more traditional design. They also offer opportu- nities to carry out survey at deeper depths, more efficiently and with less risk than deploying archaeologist divers. Furthermore, imminent advances in low-latency satellite broadband services may enable remote participation in subsea archaeo- logical survey work carried out by these vehicles, as well as facilitating new forms of live client and public engagement. Using examples of subsea archaeological survey linked to heritage protection carried out in the last three years for UK public bodies Historic England and Historic Environment Scotland, including surveys of a Spanish post-medieval wreck site and a 19 th century clipper, this paper will explore the pros and cons of using a 100m depth rated ROV of this type for archaeological work and the opportunities that could be developed from it. It will also consider whether the future relationship between the use of divers and the use of ROVs for subsea archaeology generally will echo the way in which these respective capabilities have been developed in other marine sectors, such as oil and gas and offshore wind/renewables. Although we are not able to make a definite commitment at this stage, we are potentially able to demonstrate remote interaction between the worldwide conference audience and the ROV during the presentation by means of sharing a live ROV video/sonar stream and two-way ROV pilot audio feed over the internet, whilst an operational or training dive is being undertaken in the UK.