The long-range piloting tests took place on 21 and 22 August 2020. They allowed 4 lucky elected to experience a pilot session in our “test pool” in Gradignan (33) from their place of residence: Charles in Papeete on the island of Tahiti (98713), Alfred in Antony (92), Jean-Christophe in Broca in the Landes (40) ; or from their offices like Steve in Boulogne-Billancourt (92).

Day One: Players took control of the 2D simulator and learned the basic controls to move on the keyboard or with a joystick. The tests went well for all participants, including Tahiti! The connectivity was there. The only downside is the corporate proxy that has made its own… a classic! Nothing too serious. The problem was quickly resolved.

Second day: This time the players threw themselves into the water (if I may say so).

Players in Metropolitan France have piloted the robot from their PC in a somewhat murky water (but what does the production do?). Jean-Christophe preferred the keyboard. Steve opted for a PS4 controller: OK! Alfred has released joysticks from arcades games of the previous century… Not OK. Back to keyboard.

What about Tahiti?

Well “Yes”, the ROV was piloted from Tahiti!

After a few minutes of anguish trying to establish a connection without success, the link was eventually established. Of course, there was a lot of latency in the video, but in the end it worked. Charles, our on-site correspondent was able to do some maneuvers in the water.

A nice reward for the team, to see the robot being piloted from the other side of the planet!

But then what changed between the simulator test and the pool test?

Test time! The simulator test took place in the evening “here” (in Metropolitan France) and in the morning “there”. The full-size test took place here in the morning and there in the evening. It is possible that the submarine cable is a bit overloaded in the evening (some batch flows to pass surely). To investigate.

Thank you to all the participants for lending yourself to the game!