Design and Development of a Sensor-Enhanced Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROUV) Platform for Environmental Monitoring

Remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROUVs) have been attracting more attention lately as they are considered to be operationally versatile, capable of real-time communication, and can be fitted with various sensor payloads for environmental monitoring purposes. This study presents the design, development, and field validation of a sensor-enhanced ROUV platform tailored for environmental monitoring and aquaculture applications. The vehicle is equipped with a modular set of sensors for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and electrical conductivity (EC) along with separate signal-conditioning circuits for each sensor and real-time data acquisition from tethered architecture. The general system concept is modularity, reproducibility, and robustness in a marine environment. In situ measurements were performed at an active aquaculture site in the North Aegean Sea throughout several seasons during 2025. Using this system, depth-resolved measurements were obtained with sensor accuracies of ±0.1 °C (temperature), ±0.05 pH units, ±0.05 mg/L (dissolved oxygen), and ±2% (electrical conductivity). The following sections describe the development and aquaculture testing of the platform, which yielded stable and repeatable operation in real conditions.