In August 2026 we spent a day on Lake Michigan with Midway, our compact inspection-class ROV. The work that day was a wreck survey: fly the vehicle along a wooden shipwreck, see what the camera showed, and come home with a clear record of the site.
The Midway in these photographs is an earlier yellow build. Production hulls are frosted orange glass-reinforced polymer with matte black skids. The layout is the same: a 10 in diameter vehicle, a carry handle on top, and the camera and lights at the front.
On the water
Midway weighs 18 lb in air and is 16.9 in long. It is built to fit through a 12 in opening, which is a useful size not only in pipes and tanks but also around wreck structure. A carry handle on top of the hull is there for handling and launch.
On the surface, Midway is flown from the SPU-Lite console, a 24 lb case with a 15.6 in, 1,000 nit screen. The console accepts 90–260 VAC, so it can run from a generator or from shore power, and it sends 400 VDC down the tether. On the vehicle, an industrial Vicor power converter turns that into 1 kW of ROV power and 100 W of accessory power.
The stock tether is 9 mm OD copper, 100 m (about 330 ft) in the standard package and available up to 300 m (about 980 ft). It uses a MacArtney SubConn 8-pin connector, so Midway works with common tethers.
What Midway saw
Midway carries a Blue Robotics 4K camera with tilt and two 1,500 lumen lights as standard. That is what we used to film the wreck. In the footage, Midway makes a low pass among mussel-covered timbers and holds a view of a mast still standing on the lakebed. One of the wrecks we looked at that day is the Helvetia.
The point of a compact vehicle on a site like this is not speed. It is control and access. Midway has six Subseatronics A10 thrusters — four lateral at 45° and two vertical — which is the layout you want when you are threading a 10 in vehicle through tight structure. Midway is rated to 1,000 ft. On this freshwater survey, depth was not the limiting factor; getting a steady picture among the timbers was.
A field day is also a chance to watch the topside, not just the vehicle. The SPU-Lite's 15.6 in, 1,000 nit screen is built to stay readable in daylight, and the live 4K view is what the pilot flies from. That combination — a small vehicle in the water and a bright console on the boat — is the working system, not an accessory to it.
A wreck survey of this kind is, at heart, an inspection. You want a record of the structure, the fouling, and the layout of the site, and you want it without putting a diver into tight, snag-prone wreckage first. Midway's job that day was to get that record: a 4K view, lights on, flown slowly enough that the picture could be used later. The same approach applies to other inspection work — tanks, intakes, pipes — where the first need is to see clearly and come home with the footage.
Other vehicles on the trip
Midway was not the only vehicle in the water that day. The Lanai X, an older demo unit, was also on the wreck. The Pink ROV, a student-built team ROV, scanned the wreck with a Cerulean 450 FS sonar. A field day often looks like that: different tools, different jobs, one site.
What we took home from the day
A day on the water is how we check the things a datasheet cannot show: how the vehicle handles in real water, how the picture looks on the console, and how the system packs and unpacks. Midway is sold as a complete system, not a vehicle you have to kit out before you can work. The complete package is $29,500 and includes the basic ROV, the surface console, tether, cases, and a basic tools and spares kit. Lead time is about six weeks, and every system carries a 2-year limited warranty.
Midway is made in the USA, and we sell it direct. If you want the full specification, see the Midway page. If you would rather see the vehicle in the water, request a demo.