Small Vehicles Small vehicles includes the majority of "low-cost" ROVs (LCROV), most of which are typically all electric and nominally operate to water depths of 984 feet (300 meters). These vehicles are used primarily for inspection and observation tasks. There has been a recent surge in the development of small vehicles, due primarily to the improvement in technology for electrically powered systems. These improvements have resulted in an increase of capability, performance and depth not previously achieved. "Low cost" is relative and vehicles in this class sell in the $10,000 to over $100,000 range, however, vehicles like the Quest LCROV (right) and Hydrovision’s HyBall (below) are cheap when compared to larger work class ROVs. Today's LCROVs are used widely for many tasks including science, marine recreation, search and rescue; dam, waterway and port inspection; training, shipping, nuclear inspection and coastal offshore inspection and observation tasks. The Low Cost ROV (LCROV) first appeared on the market in 1981 with International Submarine Engineering's RASCL, which cost about $45,000. In 1984 the MiniROVER, built by Deep Sea Systems International was introduced at a price of $28,600. In 1985 Deep Ocean Engineering offered the Phantom at about $30,000. By 1990, 35 versions of LCROVs could be counted, being built by 27 different manufacturers with over 500 systems delivered. Today they account for approx. 22% of all ROVs.