A New Hydrodynamics Test Facility for UUV Dynamics and Control Research

This paper reports the development of a new hydrodynamics test facility for UUV dynamics, navigation, and control research. Located at the Johns Hopkins University, the facility’s 174,000 liter water tank, navigation instrumentation, and testbed ROV provides the ability for development of advanced underwater vehicle systems. Experimental data demonstrating the performance of the facility’s sensor suite is presented. This paper briefly discusses the facility’s recent role in the development of control and navigation systems for operational oceanographic underwater vehicles.