This is a very interesting project I came across on Kickstarter earlier today.  As of this writing you still have 31 days to jump on and support the project/ get your own R.O.V. or even fund an expedition!  As you can see in the video, this is an open source unit which means the plans and code for all the equipment is made public so others can jump in and help make improvements or addons.  Being in New York and having plenty of water around us there would be plenty of opportunities to play or do some actual work with these seeing as how the price point is well within the reach of most people especially when you consider the price tag on a conventional R.O.V (who knew there was a website just for buying and selling subs and R.O.V.s?).  So far they have only taken these down to about 20m with an estimated 100m being the max depth it was designed for which leaves plenty of room to go exploring.  The bottom has been designed with four crossbars to act as hardpoints for extra equipment such as metal detectors or articulated robot arms among other things.  I could easily see myself “wasting” a lot of hours on boats or docks and maybe a few tanks with these things.

The company website is http://openrov.com/