Surf Zone Simulation for Autonomous Amphibious Vehicles

Advances in domain modeling have come a long way, however, physics-based simulations capable of multi-domain, complex environments such as surf zones with breaking waves, currents, bathymetry/terrain and surf/shore obstacles, for assessing amphibious vehicle transitions from water to shore, do not exist. Dynamic Dimension Technologies (DDT) is proposing the Water incorporated, Autonomy enabled Virtual vehicle testing Environment (WAVE) designed to accurately represent the multi-domain environmental states which influences amphibious vehicle motions. During Phase I, DDT conducted a series of experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of simulating the most challenging aspect of the scenario, the transition from fully hydrodynamic vehicle loads through the surf zone to the shore with fully tire dynamic loads. WAVE allows autonomy developers to evaluate perception sensors, vehicle control, obstacle avoidance, and path planning algorithms, vehicle designer to conduct trade-off studies and system testers to assess vehicle and autonomy system performance and safe operations.