Experimentation environment for marine vehicles

This paper describes an experimental environment for the various trials, and manoeuvres performed to verify the stability and steerability of marine vehicles using autonomous in-scale physical models. The model has an Industrial PC which communicates through a wireless network with the laptop on land, which can in turn be connected to other PCs through Internet using 3 generation Universal Mobile Telephone System (3G UMTS) technology. To do this, a software support developed in LabVIEW is used. It is possible from a distance, via the web and via DataSocket, to view data and modify the parameters of all of the instruments of the platform using the wireless network with Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology and also the Internet network with 3G UMTS technology. The software accepts different protocols of communication with the platform and is appropriate for performing the sea trials most widely used at present for determining the characteristics of steering and manoeuvring of marine vehicles, such as: turning circle, zig-zag manoeuvre, pull-out manoeuvre and spiral manoeuvre.