Wireless Underwater Drone

[Eternal Angler]

So the one thing I missed when just scanning over the Robosea's BIKI a year ago, is that it's wireless. If you haven't noticed, 99% of the other consumer underwater drones on this forum have a tether, other than the iBubble which is also known to be autonomous.

I was quite skeptical that the design of the BIKI would work, considering the controller seems very primitive with only a cheap D-pad. Along with a claimed depth rating of "196" feet deep? No way the Biki is going that deep considering how slow it moves, even if it did made it down to that depth, no wireless signal could stay connected. Then there's the matter of making it back to the surface when the battery claims to only last between 90-120 minutes. Lot of eye-catching claims that just didn't add up! After watching this review video, it's quite obvious that the Biki didn't work to well and was very hard to control. Even when they got the Biki to dive in saltwater with the special added weight, they still couldn't even get it to dive under a passing canoe and get it to stay on course.

After watching another YouTube video, it's quite obvious the built-in gimbal for the 4k camera didn't stop the constant shaking either. What's the point of filming when you'll just see constant shaking in the video afterwards? I've also heard that the supposed infrared obstacle avoidance when you plan out a route through your app doesn't work to well either after reading this article.

The bottom line, not so sure it's smart to design an underwater drone that moves, vibrates and is shaped like a fish, I mean are we going fishing? This is how we design fishing lures basically, incorporating all these aspects... Considering all the different predators out there in saltwater, I wouldn't be surprised if the BIKI gets swallowed whole and your screen just goes dark, lol. And don't kid yourself, I wouldn't be surprised if a pike or a musky took a swipe at this mini underwater drone in freshwater as well.

I'm sure it seemed like a great idea on paper, but I think the turnout was atrocious, but I wouldn't count out Robosea entirely. They seem to have some other ROVs that may also be worth considering like the Robo-ROV, which looks pretty beefy and stable for commercial purposes.

I still don't see why Robosea seems so invested in making underwater drones shaped like fish, as they have quite a few underwater drones like the RoboLab-GL, Robo-Shark, Robo-Fish, and even the RoboLab-EDU which looks like an upgraded version of the BIKI. I suspect there's gotta be a purpose and I'm just maybe missing something here...

And I'm really not sure what's going on with this company, there website was down for the longest, thought they went bankrupt, but it looks like it's up again, seems as though they redesigned the website for a lot of the new innovative underwater drones in the works. I joined the Robosea Facebook Group, but it just seems to be pretty much dead without any updates.

I have to say, some of the technology BIKI's using does seem pretty promising for other underwater drones on the market... Such as a wireless connection, infrared for obstacle avoidance, gps for return to home, route planning through the software app, and even the built in gimbal for camera stabilization. To be honest with you, I think this goes back to what I said about the (EIS) electronic image stabilization on the Chasing M2 and how crappy it looks, why couldn't Chasing incorporate a gimbal like mechanism on their underwater drones just like Robosea did with the BIKI? Again, I love my Sony FDR-AX53 which has a built in gimbal!!!

Maybe as the technology improves, the BIKI will one day will be a reliable wireless underwater drone, but the technology doesn't seem to be there yet. I have to admit the the RoboLAB-EDU actually looks pretty sweet, as if it's Robosea's next gen underwater drone. I would say, if you're looking for something comparable that actually works, the Chasing Dory would be a better buy for now. I also didn't read too many happy comments by customers who backed the BIKI campaign on KickStarter.