| Abstract | The AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) is a self-propelled underwater vehicle capable of performing a predetermined mission without the need of a crew to monitor it. Therefore, an AUV could be hundreds of mile from any support vessel of shoreline, and completely out of contact with any external source for hours or days at a time while it performs its mission. These missions can include oceanographic sampling, environmental monitoring, iceberg profiling, bathymetric surveys, searching for lost wrecks, under-ice surveys, pipeline tracking and inspection, and military applications such as mine detection and countermeasures. AUVs are particularly suited for hazardous applications because they do not require a human support team nearby or a tether to the surface. Therefore, they can find undersea mines or can examine the underneath of ice sheets without risking human injury or life. |
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