Reduced Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) Motions For Reliable Recovery

The overarching objective of the Phase II proposal is to design, build, and demonstrate a relative motion reduction system based around the USV control system. Since LCS will not be immediately available for testing, an alternative approach to demonstrate the technology is to use smaller craft for testing purposes. The base program is designed to extend the tools developed in Phase I into a simulation based on VCT simulation architecture that can analyze the relative motions of two surface craft in 6 degrees of freedom. With this more rigorous capability, the concepts evaluated in Phase I can be analyzed in the three dimensions required for a docking scenario - to bring a specific point on one boat to meet a specific point on the other boat. During this program, a relative motion control system will be designed and implemented in simulation. After a successful simulation, a relative motion sensor will be obtained and the system will be demonstrated in-water. In addition, motion prediction techniques will be investigated to determine the feasibility of autonomously timing a docking approach.