EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF AN INTELLIGENT UNDERWATER ROV SYSTEM FOR PRECISION AQUACULTURE MONITORING

The integration of autonomous technologies in aquaculture has become essential for enhancing sustainability, biosecurity, and operational efficiency within increasingly intensive production systems. This paper presents the experimental validation of a functional prototype of an intelligent Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) developed for underwater environmental monitoring under controlled laboratory conditions that simulate aquaculture-specific scenarios. The proposed system integrates vectorial propulsion, an intelligent depth-hold controller, and a multisensor inertial navigation unit, enabling robust operation in GPS-denied environments and confined aquatic infrastructures. The hardware platform incorporates optical imaging alongside dissolved oxygen, pH, and temperature sensors, with data acquisition and command input managed via a mobile dashboard interface. A series of functional trials were conducted to assess depth-hold precision, trajectorytracking accuracy, command latency, and imaging performance under dynamic test conditions. Based on these evaluations, the ROV exhibited a mean vertical deviation of ±0.10 m, a trajectory error of 0.16 m, and an average command latency of 290.7 ± 2.6 ms, demonstrating stable and repeatable behavior. These results validate the system’s potential as a non-invasive, semi-autonomous monitoring solution tailored to the requirements of precision aquaculture and scalable digital aquafarming frameworks.