ROV Survey of the Costa Concordia Grounding Site (video)

Soon after the major disaster of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which was grounded near the coast of Giglio Island, Italy, the Firemen Divers Department began searching the area around the ship's hull for passengers who might have drowned. There also were concerns that the ship might slip from her position along the coastal slope to a depth of about 70 metres, which would have seriously compromised further rescue operations. These tasks have been surveyed using an Ageotec Perseo ROV equipped with two cameras and a 5-function manipulator, which enabled more than 10,000 square metres of sea bottom to be surveyed as well as objects and samples to be collected.

The lack of an imminent risk of ship movement was rapidly assessed and allowed rescue teams to keep searching safely for missing passengers inside the cabins.

The Perseo and other Ageotec ROVs have been in use by the Italian Firemen Divers for nearly ten years now, and have proved to be an invaluable tool for search and rescue operations in coastal waters as well as in lakes and rivers, in terms of both reliability and ease of use. The Perseo can be deployed even from RHIBs with minimal requirements (launch and recovery can be handled by just 2 people, using a small crane), yet is capable of reaching 600m depth with a total payload of up to 40kg.