Sea-U-Foil:A high-speed single-strut unmanned hydrofoil vehicle
ZHAO Zuo-quan
CHEN Ben-mei
Abstract：To address the current issues of slow operating speeds and limited working ranges of autonomous marine vehicles,this paper proposes a new high-speed single-strut unmanned hydrofoil vessel:Sea-U-Foil.Unlike traditional autonomous marine vehicles,Sea-U-Foil features three motion modes,making it suitable for various marine tasks.This paper focuses on an in-depth study of the foilborne mode.The foilborne mode of Sea-U-Foil draws on the design principles of fixed-wing aircraft,incorporating the hydrofoil as its critical component.When the hydrofoil moves forward in water,it generates upward lift,which elevates the hull above the water surface,thereby reducing the contact area between the hull and the water.The decrease in contact area further reduces the drag experienced by Sea-U-Foil.As a result of the significant reduction in drag,Sea-U-Foil achieves faster operating speeds,lower energy consumption,and a broader working range.Additionally,according to Bernoulli's principle,the lift generated by the hydrofoil is proportional to the square of the speed.As speed increases,lift also increases,which enhances the payload capacity of Sea-U-Foil.In this paper,a detailed introduction is presented to the working principle,design,and control of Sea-U-Foil,and validates the effectiveness of our design through experiments,demonstrating the superior performance of Sea-U-Foil compared to traditional monohull and catamaran vessels.A related video can be found here:
Keywords：hydrofoil vehicleunmanned surface vehicleSea-U-Foil
Publication Date：2025-11-30
Online Publishing Date：2025-12-29(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：8( 2188-2195 )