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The Office of Naval Research recently awarded Professor Raju Datla, Research Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ocean Engineering Department and Davidson Laboratory at Stevens Institute of Technology, with a $500,000 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program Grant for instrumentation that will bring new and unique capabilities to Stevens towing tank.

ONR's funding will support Datla's research into Planar Motion Mechanism (PMM) for Nonlinear Maneuvering of Surface and Submersible Bodies. The PMM is a tow-carriage mounted, computer-controlled instrument that superimposes unsteady motions on a towed model advancing at forward speed. The addition of a PMM to the renovated high-speed towing tank will expand the scope of model-testing currently being performed to include investigation of unsteady maneuvering effects thus providing a unique testing capability not found at other academic institutions.

One of the objectives of this project is to increase and enhance the database of such information for the US Navy, said Dr. Michael Bruno, Director of the Center for Maritime Systems at Stevens. Currently, very little maneuvering data for high speed craft is available.

As part of the ongoing ONR SwampWorks Swimmer Detection Project, future use of the PMM will involve AUV low-speed maneuvering studies with a focus on applications for the swimmer detection platform. Use of the PMM will also include high-speed nonlinear maneuvering research involving unconventional (n-hull) multi-hull concepts.