The design of a launch and recovery vehicle for AUVs (LARVA)

Seifert, Peter (2022) The design of a launch and recovery vehicle for AUVs (LARVA). Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (15MB)

Abstract

The engineering problem presented in this paper is the design of LARVA, a new launch and recovery vessel for the Memorial Explorer AUV. The solution detailed in this report is one which is modelled after a heavy lift vessel. It is a 19ft long, unmanned vessel and is capable of launching or recovering the AUV by ballasting itself to a 3.7ft draft and raising itself back up. The innovative aspects of this design is that it was designed to be used with a readily available boat trailer for launch and recovery with a slipway. The concept solution was analyzed using hydrostatics analysis software to assess its stability and to aid in the process of positioning and sizing the ballast tanks. A motion tracking system was used during model testing to assess its seakeeping ability in offshore waves and an analysis of variance test (ANOVA) was conducted to: capture the dependency between the input parameters, reduce the number of runs required, and to generate a response surface characterizing the heaving motions.

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