Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are untethered robotic platforms designed to carry out underwater missions with limited or no continuous human control. AUV systems integrate propulsion, navigation, onboard computing, communications, and sensor payloads for hydrographic survey, subsea inspection, environmental monitoring, search, and mine countermeasures.
This page showcases AUV manufacturers and suppliers offering propeller-driven and hover-capable vehicles, underwater gliders, compact systems, and hybrid designs.
Read the Technology Overview
Cutting-Edge Unmanned Systems, Counter-UAS Solutions, and UxV Technology for the Modern Battlefield
Autonomous Underwater Drone for Subsea Exploration, Survey and Inspection
Autonomous and Unmanned Marine Vehicles: USV, AUV, Marine ROV; Profiling Floats & Towed Systems
Hybrid Underwater Robotic Systems for Subsea Use in Civilian, Security & Defence Sectors
Leading-Edge Solutions & Services for Defense, Ocean & Marine Energies Applications
Cinematic Underwater Robotic Vehicles (ROV & AUV) for Inspections, Observation and Videography
Marine Autopilots, Unmanned Surface Vehicle Communications, Power Management Modules & Marine Simulators & Software
If you design, build or supply Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), create a profile to showcase your capabilities and connect with visitors who have an active requirement for your solutions.
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are untethered robotic platforms that operate beneath the surface with limited or no continuous human control. AUVs combine navigation, propulsion, sensing, onboard computing, communications, and mission software to perform survey, inspection, research, monitoring, search, and defense tasks.
Unlike Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), AUVs normally carry out missions without a continuous physical connection to an operator. A subset of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), their onboard systems allow them to follow planned routes, maintain depth or altitude, collect sensor data, avoid hazards, and respond to predefined changes in operating conditions. Some vehicles can also adapt parts of a mission based on sensor inputs, vehicle health, or navigation confidence.
Boxfish AUV – Tetherless Hovering AUV by Boxfish Robotics
Propeller-driven AUVs use electric motors and thrusters to generate forward motion and control. Their streamlined design makes them well suited to structured survey missions where stable speed, efficient transit, and consistent altitude are important. These vehicles commonly carry sonar, cameras, navigation systems, and environmental sensors, with endurance shaped by battery capacity, speed, payload demand, and operating conditions.
A hovering AUV uses multiple thrusters to maneuver precisely at low speeds, move laterally, and maintain position near underwater structures or targets. This capability is useful for close inspection, detailed imaging, confined areas, archaeological sites, and subsea assets where controlled movement is more important than efficient long-range transit.
An AUV glider changes its buoyancy to move vertically through the water, while wings convert this motion into slow forward travel. Because this propulsion method uses relatively little energy, a glider AUV can remain deployed for extended periods and is particularly useful for oceanographic research, water-column profiling, and persistent environmental monitoring. The tradeoff is lower speed and reduced ability to hold position in strong currents.
Compact and micro AUV platforms prioritize portability, rapid deployment, and operation in environments where larger vehicles may be impractical. They can support shallow-water mapping, research, inspection, training, and multi-vehicle missions, although their smaller size usually places tighter limits on payload volume, battery capacity, endurance, and sensor aperture.
Large and extra-large autonomous underwater vehicles provide more internal space for batteries, navigation equipment, sensors, and mission payloads. This can support greater range, longer endurance, and more complex missions, including wide-area survey and persistent operations. Their increased size can also require more substantial transport, launch, recovery, maintenance, and support arrangements.
Resident AUVs are designed to remain at or near an underwater operating area rather than returning to a support vessel after each mission. A resident AUV system may use a subsea docking station for charging, data transfer, health monitoring, navigation updates, and mission uploads, enabling more persistent inspection or monitoring while reducing routine vessel involvement.
Hybrid autonomous underwater vehicles combine autonomous operation with capabilities associated with remotely operated or intervention systems. A vehicle may conduct a survey independently before switching to supervised control, with some designs using a tether when direct control, higher-bandwidth communication, or intervention is required.
ALSEAMAR’s SEAEXPLORER Autonomous Underwater Glider
AUVs can collect high-resolution bathymetric and acoustic data while following repeatable tracks close to the seabed. This makes them useful for hydrographic mapping, route survey, seabed characterization, marine construction planning, cable and pipeline corridor assessment, and other applications that depend on detailed knowledge of underwater terrain.
Envoy AUV by Cellula Robotics
Autonomous underwater vehicles are used to inspect pipelines, subsea cables, offshore wind infrastructure, production equipment, and other submerged assets. Sonar and optical sensors can document asset position, surrounding seabed conditions, burial or exposure status, free spans, and visible features, while repeatable missions support comparison between successive inspections.
AUV technology allows researchers to collect measurements throughout the water column and close to the seabed without continuously operating a tethered platform. Vehicles can carry instruments for measuring temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, chlorophyll, currents, and other physical, chemical, and biological parameters. Repeat missions can help researchers measure change over time.
An AUV drone can follow systematic survey patterns to search large underwater areas for wrecks, lost equipment, geological features, or other objects of interest. Sonar, magnetometers, and optical sensors may be combined to detect, classify, and localize targets, while accurate navigation helps associate findings with reliable geographic positions.
AUVs can support mine countermeasure missions by surveying potentially hazardous areas without placing personnel directly over the search zone. An autonomous underwater drone may contribute to detection, classification, localization, and mapping of mine-like objects, with performance depending on sensor resolution, navigation accuracy, environmental conditions, and mission autonomy.
AUV performance depends on the combination of underwater sensors, navigation technologies, communications, and onboard processing integrated into the vehicle:
The most suitable payload configuration depends on mission objectives, available power, required navigation accuracy, vehicle stability, communications needs, data volume, internal space, and launch and recovery constraints.
Several areas of development are extending the capabilities and operating models of autonomous underwater vehicles:
These developments are also influencing how AUV manufacturers and autonomous underwater vehicle companies approach complete vehicle design. Greater onboard processing and autonomy can reduce operator input, but practical performance still depends on energy, communications, navigation accuracy, environmental conditions, payload requirements, and reliable launch and recovery.
Searching Companies & Products
Subscribe to the Weekly eBrief
The latest engineering and technical developments straight to your inbox - join thousands of engineers who receive it.
