Below the Waterline · Episode 03
Diver, ROV Or Both?
When to deploy a professional diver, an ROV or a combination of both.
- Duration
- 06:59
- Published
- 4 Key topics
About this episode
An ROV is not a cheaper diver, and a diver is not a slower ROV. In this episode we compare the two honestly and explain how we choose between them on real civil projects.
Cameras excel at rapid coverage, safe access to confined or contaminated water, and repeatable visual records. Divers remain unbeatable where the job requires touch, force or tooling: clearing growth, closing a valve, fitting a clamp, or confirming by hand what a camera cannot resolve in turbid water.
We also look at the most common answer in practice — both. A short ROV sweep to locate and prioritise, followed by targeted diver time, usually delivers better data in fewer hours and with less exposure.
Key topics
- 01Risk reduction
- 02Inspection quality
- 03Cost and time
- 04Combined deployment