Six-Degree-of-Freedom Motion Emulation for Data-Driven Modeling of Underwater Vehicles

This article presents a collaborative research effort aimed at developing a novel six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) motion platform for the empirical characterization of hydrodynamic forces crucial for the control and stability of surface and subsurface vehicles. Traditional experimental methods, such as the Planar Motion Mechanism (PMM), are limited by the number of simultaneously articulated DOFs and are limited to single-frequency testing, making such systems impractical for resolving frequency-dependent added mass or damping matrices. The 6 DOF platform, termed a hexapod, overcomes these limitations by offering enhanced maneuverability and the ability to test broad-banded frequency spectra in multiple degrees of freedom in a single experiment.