The ROV KIEL 6000 is a remotely operated vehicle built by Schilling Robotics, Davis, California. It's in the possession of the German GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. The ROV has been designed for certain scientific tasks with a max. operational depth of 6,000 m (19,685 feet). The ROV is electrically powered and directly linked to the operating ship via a deep-sea glass fiber cable. It can be operated from ships of opportunity which fulfill certain requirements such as deck space and stability, power supply, dynamic positioning and crane/winch capacities.
ROV KIEL 6000 is used within multidisciplinary scientific projects such as the Cluster of Excellence "The Future Ocean" and for the installation and maintenance of ocean observatories.
Technical specifications
edit| vehicle type | QUEST 7, electrical "workclass" ROV (Schilling Robotics LLC) |
| working depth | up to 6000 m |
| dimensions | length 3.5 m, width 1.9 m, height 2.4 m (including toolskid) |
| weight | in air: ca. 3500 kg (incl. toolskid); in water: neutral |
| speed | 3.0 kn ahead/astern (1.5 m/s); 2.0 kn lateral and vertical (1 m/s) |
| thrust | 530 kgf ahead/astern; 340 kgf lateral; 300/380 kgf vertical |
| propulsion system | 7 electric motors SPE-380 with 600 VDC @ 10 kW each (sub-Atlantic Inc.) |
| auto heading | ± 2° |
| station keep (DP) | ± 0.3 m |
| electric power | 3800 - 4160 VAC/460 Hz; 60 kW on the vehicle |
| deep-sea cable | 6500 m @ 19 mm; 1.3 t/km in air = 8.45 t; 1 t/km in water = 6.2 t in max. water depth; 3 copper wires with 4 mm2 diameter;[clarification needed] 3 fibre optic cable (LWL) SM |
| deep-sea winch | 2 electric motors @ 80 kW each; weight incl. cable: ca. 30 t |
| digital telemetry | 4 nodes with 16 ports each (serial, video and Ethernet); multiplexer for data transfer in the Gbit range (including HDTV and high- resolution multibeam depth sounder) |
| scientific payload | up to 100 kg on toolskid with 2 hydraulically driven drawers |
| hydraulic pump | 15 kW with 39 lpm @ 207 bar; supplies power for the manipulators and drawers; other hydraulically driven tools can be added via valvepacks |
| transport of the entire system | five 20' ISO containers (two of which are high cube containers) |
| system weight | 65 t |
| certification | Germanischer Lloyd, Hamburg |