Review of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Abstract

The exploration of ocean space requires underwater vehicles (UV) such as submarines, auton- omous underwater vehicles (AUV),mannedunderwater vehicles, remotely operatedvehicles (ROV) and ship towed instrumentation packages. Of these, AUVs dominate the exploration of deep oceans. The list of applicationswhere UVs can be employed include long-termdeplo- yments where they would serve as platforms for spatiotemporal samplings of physical char- acteristics (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 subma- rines; andmine hunting, pipe laying, and inspection andmaintenance of offshore structures.