Determining the Position of Underwater Tethers in Real Time

The purpose of this thesis is to present two ways of determining the position of underwater tethers, mathematical tether modeling and sensor system measurement. Though the ideal solution may be a combination of both modeling and measurements, this thesis only covers modeling and measurements individually. The tether model is designed to be placed in a virtual environment (VE) simulator in order help train ROV pilots on tether awareness. The model assumes that the tether will follow the equation of a scaled and shifted catenary. The solution can be found in three dimensions within roughly 4n operations, where n is the number of tether segments making up the catenary. The sensor measurement system uses strain gauges to measure the bending and torsional strains in the tether in order to obtain the position of the tether underwater. Thesis Supervisor: Nathaniel I. Durlach Title: Senior Research Scientist