Abstract
Traditional Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) have typically relied on batteries or fossil fuels for propulsion, presenting challenges related to limited endurance, operational range, and carbon emissions. This paper introduces a pioneering USV design that harnesses only the orbital motion of the wave particles as its primary propulsion source. The USV consisting of multiple fin modules can move along and against the wave propagation direction. A 1:20 scale model was fabricated by Jospa Ltd and tested at the Lir National Ocean Test Facility at University College Cork. The effects of hydrodynamic and geometrical factors on the device performance including its pulling capacity and velocity were studied. The USV performs best with 45° forward fins for wave-following motion and 45° backward fins for wave-opposing motion. Increasing wave height improves the model performance with results showing that doubling the wave height increases its velocity by 65% to 140%. Additionally, reducing fin spacing could significantly improve the model's performance. A numerical model based on potential wave theory was also developed and validated using experiments. The numerical sensitivity analysis showed that the 45° fin configuration provided the strongest and most consistent overall propulsion performance across the investigated wave periods and operating directions.