ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) — A group of engineering graduates in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria hope to reach new depths with their remote-controlled underwater vehicle.
The device is capable of retrieving objects from underwater, which the team hopes will make it suitable for fixing damaged oil pipes and fiber optic cables.
It is fitted with a camera, so it could also be used for underwater diagnostics.
The eight engineering graduates involved in the project began work on the prototype in 2014 while they were students at Alexandria University.
“We discovered that there are a lot of companies around the world that manufacture this product, but not in the Arab world. Why do we not have the know-how for it?” said team member Abdelrahman Magdy as the team tested their design in a swimming pool.
The group perfected their design during their studies and invested around 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,830) of their own money to make it a reality.
Their design won first place in a regional regional remotely operated vehicle (ROV) competition as well as placing third in NASA’s Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center competition, according to Mahmoud Assem, one of the team members.
They have since been approached by a company to design a robot to clean underwater tanks, leading the group start their own company.
The robot’s current design can reach a depth of 25 meters (82 feet), but the graduate team believe that they could reach greater depths with the right equipment and investment.
Magdy says the team is looking for government support for company’s next phase.
“In order for us to be able to offer something bigger that can reach greater depths there needs to be support, whether financial or political, so we can enter the places where a lot of permits are needed from high ranking institutions, in order to test (the robot) in the sea,” he said.
The team hopes their new company can compete in the global ROV market by providing products with advanced technology at a lower cost than their international counterparts with local tools and expertise.