Development of a Simulator for Operator Proficiency Training for Seafloor Exploration by Remotely Operated Vehicle

This paper describes a new ocean simulator developed to train operators to operate ROV-based seafloor exploration. This simulator has the function to simulate time-varying ocean currents in addition to calculating hydrodynamic effects, which we consider important for the simulation of underwater ROV operations. It can also provide more realistic operational training by applying arbitrary ROV models and seafloor data as the experimental operating environment. In this paper, we apply 3D seafloor data created by our research group based on seafloor surface images and an operation model created based on a real ROV. Then, an operation training experiment was conducted in a simulated ocean current using this simulator. As a result, we confirmed an increase in the operator’s operation accuracy and demonstrated the effectiveness of the operation training on the simulator.