Underwater Robots –
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): The future of offshore survey?

An AUV is an unmanned robotic device similar in appearance to a small submarine, fitted with all of the conventional survey sensors used to map the ocean floor: multibeam echo sounders, side scan sonar, sub-bottom profilers and magnetometers, as well as acoustic positioning systems to confirm the exact location of the AUV. AUVs operate independently of the survey vessel with no wires or umbilicals and are driven through the water by a propulsion system controlled by an onboard computer following a pre-determined survey line plan. The AUV and support vessel can often communicate using underwater acoustic modems.

The benefits of AUVs over ROVs come largely from the fact that they are not tethered to a surface vessel. This allows the AUV to work in an acoustically quiet environment with no vessel or surface noise to contend with, and at far deeper operating limits below the sea surface. The resulting data is excellently positioned and of very high resolution allowing the finest changes in sediments, seabed morphology structure or shallow geology to be analysed.