This paper presents a dynamic model to simulate the motion of a Ship-Cable-Underwater vehicle system. The nonlinear ship maneuvering equation, Lumped parameter model of cable and six degree of freedom equations of vehicle are all included in the model. The model can simulate the three-dimensional transient coupled motion of the complex multi-body system in typical ship manevering conditions and can be used in either a towing problem or a tethered underwater vehicle problem. The paper also provides examples illustrating the validity of the model, one of them is compared with a laboratory test. The results are shown to be in fairly good agreement with the test.
The dynamics of TROV are nonlinear in nature due to rigid body coupling and the hydrodynamic forces on the vehicle. The ROV configuration is neither simple nor streamlined, and in addition, a number of thrusters are installed in close proximity to give it the required maneuverability. The ROV usually have comparable velocities along all three axes. Therefore the technique that depend on linearization of the equations of motion about a single forward operating speed cannot be used as effectively as they can with aircraft and submarines. The full, six- degree- of- freedom equations of motion of a slow moving ROV are potentially very complex and satisfactory performance of the vehicle cannot be obtained without consideration of cross-coupling between the different degrees of freedoms. This paper presents a dynamic model to simulate the motion of a ship- cable- ROV system. The nonlinear ship maneuvering equation, lumped parameter model of cable and six-degree-of-freedom equations of ROV are all included. The model can simulate the three-dimensional transient coupled motion of the complex multi-body system in typical ship maneuvering conditions and can be used in either a towing or a tethered underwater vehicle problems.