Experimental Force Data of a Restrained ROV underWaves and Current

Hydrodynamic forces are an important input value for the design, navigation and stationkeeping of underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). The experiment investigated the forcesimparted by currents (with representative real world turbulence) and waves on a commerciallyavailable ROV, namely the BlueROV2 (Blue Robotics, Torrance, USA). Three different distances ofa simplified cylindrical obstacle (shading effects) were investigated in addition to the free streamcases. Eight tethers held the ROV in the middle of the 2 m water depth to minimise the influence ofthe support structure without completely restricting the degrees of freedom (DoF). Each tether wasequipped with a load cell and small motions and rotations were documented with an underwatervideo motion capture system. The paper describes the experimental set-up, input values (currentspeed and wave definitions) and initial processing of the data. In addition to the raw data, a processeddataset is provided, which includes forces in all three main coordinate directions for each mountingpoint synchronised with the 6DoF results and the free surface elevations. The provided dataset can beused as a validation experiment as well as for testing and development of an algorithm for positioncontrol of comparable ROVs.