Generally vortex induced vibration is important for stationary bodies in a flow. What will be the significance of such motion on a slowly moving robot in a river stream?
The vortex-induced vibrations that can impact the device depend on velocity of underwater robot. In some cases they are considered as perturbations and it is the control of underwater robot that will minimize their effect.
Here are some links in topics.
-Decentralized model reference adaptive autopilot for underwater robot
dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2169153
29th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic ...