Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

---

Last modified: Wed Aug 6 15:14:55 EDT 2003

---

AUVs are unmanned, untethered submersible robots that are capable of carrying out missions autonomously. Examples of AUVs include: the EAVE-III vehicles (shown above) of the Marine Systems Engineering Laboratory (part of the Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute), the Ocean Voyager and Ocean Explorer vehicles of Florida Atlantic University, the Odyssey vehicles at MIT Sea Grant, and the Phoenix AUV at the Naval Postgraduate School. These and many other kinds can be seen by visiting the Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute's (AUSI's) home page.

Some AUV-Related Links

• AUSI The Autonomous Undersea Systems Institute (Lee, NH USA; formerly the Marine Systems Engineering Laboratory, MSEL) concentrates on AUV-related research, including intelligent control of AUVs, and cooperative distributed problem solving for multi-AUV systems, including CDPS techniques for controlling autonomous oceanographic sampling networks (AOSNs).
• The Naval Postgraduate School has an active AUV program spanning several departments on campus. Don Brutzman's Underwater Virtual World for AUV simulation software is available at this site.
• Florida Atlantic University has a very active AUV program, with multiple Ocean Voyager and Ocean Explorer vehicles.
• MIT Sea Grant has multiple Odyssey vehicles that have seen extended use at sea, including in very demanding environments. They are involved in autonomous oceanographic sampling networks (AOSNs) as well.
• ISER's AUV Page - Information about the Theseus AUV, etc.
• Autosub AUV project (UK)
• A lot of AUV, ROV, and ocean engineering and science takes place as Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), one of the world's premiere oceanographic laboratories.
• The SeaCompanion Marine Index provides information about marine organizations and companies and their products and services.
• Bluefin Robotics -- Dr. Jim Bellingham's AUV company.