The Blue-RoSES Project: a Gate for Remote Exploration of the Seas

This paper focuses on the description of the Blue-RoSES project, an European funded activity devoted to the development and exploitation of a reliable infrastructure for the remote employment of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) for both professional and recreational applications in coastal environments, marinas and yachting. The paper firstly provides an overall view of the concept and then summarizes the main modules composing the architecture that is responsible for reliable and stable remote piloting of ROVs. Analysis of the critical issues related to remote piloting and control is carried out and measurements of the communication lags and delays are performed to obtain a statistical characterization, also providing a quantitative measure of the communication service. The reliability and performance of the complete system are demonstrated through experimental campaigns in real case scenarios.