The Australian Maritime Engineering Cooperative Research Centre, in collaboration with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and Curtin University, has been involved in the determination of the hydrodynamic characteristics of uninhabited underwater vehicles (UUV) used by the Royal Australian Navy and the offshore oil and gas industry. These characteristics are essential for the design of low level motion controllers and for the development of computer simulations. DSTO has designed and built a horizontal planar motion mechanism (HPMM), the first facility of its type in Australia, specifically for the determination of the manoeuvring characteristics of UUVs. The capability of the HPMM facility, and of the additional facilities located at the Australian Maritime College, are presented. The preliminary results of a project is also presented. The aim of the project was to determine the effect on the manoeuvring characteristics of a generic flatfish UUV of lateral thruster ducts.
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