Design and Implementation of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle with Four-Thruster Motion Model

This study presents the design and implementation of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) equipped with a catamaran hull and four-thruster propulsion system to support research on underwater robot applications, with a focus on deep-water hydropower station dams. The proposed catamaran USV incorporates mechanical design, propulsion layout, and control system modeling to achieve motion performance and robust navigation. A mathematical model based on vehicle kinematics and dynamics was studied to capture surge, sway, and yaw under various thrust configurations. Using a four-thruster catamaran allocation strategy, the system achieves improved path following and station-keeping capabilities. A prototype was built and tested, showing close agreement between simulations and experiments. Results confirm that the four-thruster design significantly improves maneuverability compared to conventional twinthruster systems, making it suitable for applications such as environmental monitoring, surveillance, and autonomous marine.