Hydrodynamic characteristics of the propulsion thrusters of an unmanned ship model

In this paper, an experimental model has been developed to study an unmanned ship. Two aft azimuthal propellers and two bow tunnel thrusters were used to propel the ship. In order to develop algorithms and a computer program to control the model, it is necessary to determine the hydrodynamic characteristics of the propellers installed in the model. The propellers are very small; therefore it is impossible to use approximate methods of calculating the thrust of the ship’s propellers. The characteristics of the thrust of the propellers installed in the model were measured experimentally. This paper has given a description of the test stand and the results of the measurement of the thrust forces of the propellers installed in the model of an unmanned ship.