Intelligence and Autonomy for Underwater Robotic Vehicles

Autonomous underwater vehicles have a wide range of possible applications. These include inspection in confined spaces like pipelines, natural and artificial caves, the interior of complex artificial structures, as well as deep-sea or other extreme natural environments. In all such cases, the impossibility of using tethers and the lack of high-bandwidth and reliable wireless communications with human operators make autonomy and intelligence a key feature of the required systems. This includes the capability of understanding their surrounding, self-localization, and motion planning, as well as high-level task/mission planning and self-awareness.

In this Special Issue, the latest advances in autonomy and intelligence for AUVs are addressed, with a special emphasis on real-world applications and field demonstrations.
Keywords

Autonomous underwater vehicles
Guidance, navigation, and control
Self-awareness
Mission planning
Path planning
Underwater SLAM
Underwater perception and sensor fusion
Manipulation and grasping
Near and wide range underwater communication systems
Multi-robot systems
Bio-inspired underwater robots