Review of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Abstract

The exploration of ocean space requires underwater vehicles (UV) such as submarines, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), manned underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and ship towed instrumentation packages. Of these, AUVs dominate the exploration of deep oceans. The list of applications where UVs can be employed include long-term deployments where they would serve as platforms for spatiotemporal samplings of physical characteristics (e.g., temperature, depth, conductivity, current) of the water column; use of multiple vehicles for mapping out an evolving phenomenon such as hydrothermal vents, tsunamis, etc., rapidly; transiting long distances to a site for making observations as part of a response team; search and mapping of seabed minerals; underwater warfare using submarines; and mine hunting, pipe laying, and inspection and maintenance of offshore structures.