It’s great to hear from you, @Rongee! Oh man- seeing what’s down at 1000’ in Lake Michigan would be amazing. You’re certainly in the right place to talk about it.
Although Bristlemouth has just launched and there are limited numbers of compatible modules so far, the thing that really excites me about it is that it can allow systems to be modular like you describe. Before I got into underwater stuff, I worked on micro satellites, and I remember how revolutionary the CubeSat standard was for the industry. Certainly, the hope is that Bristlemouth will help democratize access to underwater research in the same way.
If you haven’t seen it already, I made a semi-functional example of an AUV using this architecture, and I think it would be very possible to make an ROV using basically the same components, just configured differently. This would also be a great way for students to experiment with building underwater vehicles and equipment since the parts would basically go together like Lego. I’m already working on some other Bristlemouth modules so it would be great to trade notes on what types of devices you’d like to see first. I have a mechanical engineering background, so with you EE skills, I imagine we might be able to help each other! Thanks for the post, and excited to learn more about what you’re interested in.