Virtual uncrewed system sampling in the hurricane environment. Part 1: rigid-wing surface vehicle simulator

Abstract

Uncrewed vehicles (UxS) are the frontier of atmospheric and oceanic measurements in extreme regimes and remote areas. The combination of Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs), Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) and Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has the potential to transform air-sea coupling observations through co-located sampling of the lower atmosphere, upper ocean and air-sea interface. Although individual platforms have reached a relatively mature operational stage, designing coordinated missions remains challenging. UxS navigation is strongly affected by environmental conditions their and deployment can be logistically complex and poorly repeatable. We take a first step towards co-locating UxS under environmental influences by developing a novel physics-based, dynamical simulator for a rigid-wing, wind-powered USV that: a) reproduces the observed USV navigation during the NOAA Atlantic Hurricane missions, b) can be virtually navigated in numerical simulations. Starting from force-balance principles, the simulator reproduces the USV surge, sway and yaw, given wind, ocean current information, and control wing and rudder angle inputs. Model parameters are calibrated and validated using observations from the NOAA Atlantic Hurricane missions. A virtual controller is also developed to enable waypoint-based navigation within numerical environmental simulations to support repeatable experiments assessing the feasibility and design of coordinated USV–UUV sampling strategies.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Frontiers in Marine Science, 2026 · DOI ↗