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Though LRAUVs are autonomous, that does
not mean that they never need to communicate or cooperate with other agents.
At minimum, an AUV will need to obtain GPS (global positioning system) fixes
during its mission. It may also, depending on the mission, need to send
data to its users, to communicate with a satellite to ground truth data, or to
cooperate with other AUVs (e.g., for cooperative photography
[\protect\citenameTurner et al., 1991] or exploration tasks).
Communication is difficult in the AUV domain. While underwater, communication
over any but the smallest of distances requires acoustic modems-radio will
not work in seawater, and laser communication is severely limited due to the
properties of water and the suspended particulate matter in it.
Unfortunately, acoustic modems have a very low bandwidth; yet any other method
requires surfacing, which may impact the AUV's mission plan or even put it at
risk, depending on the sea state.
To communicate effectively, the AUV must be able to:
- reason about when it needs to communicate, so that communication
actions can be integrated into the evolving mission plan;
- carefully select what to say, since bandwidth is limited; and
- maintain coherent dialogues with those with whom it is communicating.