Robotic bouyancy compensation

[Kharon]

I would never trust an automated anything to mess with my buoyancy. I did software engineering for too long to trust any code that assuredly has a minimum of 3% undiscovered bugs. And why would I want such a thing. I can easily control my buoyancy perfectly on my own.

 

[emoreira]

A better approach to this would be improve your buoyancy instead of letting this to a device.
I guess, besides of this, that this device would increase the diver air consumption. Suppose that a diver is over-weighted. He would not be worried, as the automated BCD will take care of that. Adding and purging air from the BCD to allow the diver do what he wants will increase air needs.

 

[NYCNaiad]

I was never considering actually doing something like this, I just think it's kinda fun to discuss the challenges and solutions to make something like this hypothetically work.

I think a sealed independent system is a good idea, using CO2 cartridges likely, like the old BCD emergency solutions... lol

The idea of setting baselines would be so that it would "know" if you were swimming up or down and not fight you.

I think it's cool to think of different ways to use technology. I'm in product management so I totally get why this excites you. I tend to like to do the physical stuff for myself & rely on computers to do things that would be very difficult for me to do (e.g., like a dive computer). But you never know.

 

[frndrfoe]

Thank God somebody understands my madness

 

[BRT]

I was never considering actually doing something like this, I just think it's kinda fun to discuss the challenges and solutions to make something like this hypothetically work.

I think a sealed independent system is a good idea, using CO2 cartridges likely, like the old BCD emergency solutions... lol

The idea of setting baselines would be so that it would "know" if you were swimming up or down and not fight you.

You are thinking of hooking it up to your brain? We often do depth changes with breath control.

 

[dmaziuk]

Thank God somebody understands my madness

The problem, as @herman pointed out, is that we almost never actually "cruise" at set depth, so you'd have to mostly turn this thing off all the time. I would think it'd be most useful for maintaining the safety stop at anchor line -- but there you have the anchor line you can grab on to and control your depth that way.

 

[Coztick]

This is the ultimate equipment solution to a skills problem.
I control my buoyancy more intuitively than any device could.
That skill and the mastery of it is one of the things that I love about scuba.
R&D would be hilarious and probably dangerous.

 

[dmaziuk]

This is the ultimate equipment solution to a skills problem.
I control my buoyancy more intuitively than any device could.

This is manual vs automatic. I like the stick, but there are upsides to setting cruise control on an empty stretch of the freeway or not needing to work the clutch all the time while crawling through umpteen miles of roadworks.

This could be handy when framing a shot, but you'd have to turn it off once you're done and back on for the next shot and so on.

 

[kr2y5]

I guess, besides of this, that this device would increase the diver air consumption. Suppose that a diver is over-weighted. He would not be worried, as the automated BCD will take care of that. Adding and purging air from the BCD to allow the diver do what he wants will increase air needs.

Not necessarily. Over-weighted divers often keep kicking up to compensate for the fact they are not neutral. Keeping them neutral would decrease their breathing rate. Also, a device like this should easily be able to very accurately measure how much a diver is overweighted, and suggest to remove excess weight prior to the next dive. It would probably be much more accurate than most weight checks that are being done manually.

For me, a technology like this would take too much pleasure out of diving. But, I could see it used as a safety device, e.g., for divers in training, or divers who just cannot be bothered, or cannot afford the time to advance their skills, activating itself only when the diver is sinking or bolting for the surface at an unsafe rate, and with a big red "panic" button on your wrist that, upon clicking, instantly stabilizes the diver at the current depth.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

activating itself only when the diver is sinking or bolting for the surface at an unsafe rate, and with a big red "panic" button on your wrist that, upon clicking, instantly stabilizes the diver at the current depth.

Can you imagine the lawsuit - if the "panic" button is hit by mistake after being OOA - bang - stabilize the diver at current depth... lol - yikes...

Then of course I can not imagine a paniced diver bolting for the surface - pausing and hitting the "panic" button - but it could happen...