The prediction of hydrodynamic derivatives using empirical methods, computational fluid dynamics and system identification is presently under investigation. Other areas of interest include nonlinear feedback controllers, autopilot design, visualization and animation. In the area of ROVs, Dr. Nahon's research group is looking at methods to alleviate snap loading of the umbilical cable of a deep-sea submersible system. Numerical simulations have been devised and validated using a motion-sensing package. The simulation results are being used to devise a passive alleviation system to reduce the load variations in the cable.
Work is also ongoing in the modelling of slack tethers for shallow-water ROVs.
Research is also ongoing in the simulation and control of a large scale triple tethered aerostat. This system is under investigation by astronomers for use as the antenna feed support of a radio telescope two orders of magnitude larger than any presently in existence. Some of the research in the area of robotics relates to the high-speed determination of distances between objects in a computer simulation. The solution is based on the formulation of an optimization problem which can be solved efficiently. This approach is currently being used for the simulation of space-based robotic systems.