How do I create an ocean environment instead of ground plane in gazebo?

Question

I am working on a project where I need to spawn a platform floating on a water body, ocean in this case. The platform could be:

1. Only floating and standing still.
2. Only floating and moving with some velocity.
3. Floating and moving and changing its orientation in any random direction.

Is it possible to do this?

Answer 1

Possible, yes. However, the three items you've described are doable within the default gazebo environment. To be more specific within the realm of aquatic vehicles in gazebo you'll want to look at UUV and gazebo hydrodynamics.