UW Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

An Underwater Robot for Attaching Recovery Lines

Retrieving objects from the seafloor is typically done by human divers or remotely operated vehicles, which makes the process costly, time consuming, and dependent on specialized operators. This project aimed to develop a prototype “smart hook,” an ROV-inspired module mounted at the end of a winch line that could help automate attachment to subsea objects before they were lifted to the surface. The concept focused on cooperative objects designed for retrieval by the system, with the hook lowered near an approximate known location and then using limited horizontal motion and visual homing to search for, approach, and attach to the target. The prototype was intended to include core autonomy and control functions, along with manual control modes for testing, using a reconfigured BlueROV platform and a hardwired tether rather than wireless communication. The system was intended to support faster testing and recovery of subsea scientific instruments, with future versions potentially extending to less structured objects such as subsea debris.