Use of Optical Tracking System for Measurement of Dynamic Model Responses in a Wave Tank

the development of the full scale devices especially in the oil
and gas industry. Dynamic responses of the scaled model
subjected to the environmental forces are obtained by testing
the models in the wave tank. Conventionally accelerometers
have been usedto determine the dynamic motionresponses of
the model in the six degrees of freedom. However, the
accelerometer has limitation that it can directly measure the
translation motions only and rotation motions have to be
interpreted from them. Recently developed optical tracking
system has proven to be very efficient in measuring all the
dynamic responses. Hence, many Laboratories use both the
accelerometers and optical tracking system for mutual
validation and accuracy of the measurements. In this paper,
a new optical tracking system acquired by the Offshore
Laboratory of UniversitiTeknologi PETRONAS (UTP), is
discussed. The details of the system and the tracking
procedures are presented and the paper concludes by
presenting very reliable results based on these measurements.