Autonomous underwater vehicle

Lore & Background

The first AUV was developed at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington as early as 1957 by Stan Murphy, Bob Francois and later on, Terry Ewart. The 'Self-Propelled Underwater Research Vehicle', or SPURV, was used to study diffusion, acoustic transmission, and submarine wakes. Other early AUVs were developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1970s; one of these is on display in the Hart Nautical Gallery at MIT. At the same time, AUVs were also developed in the Soviet Union, although this was not commonly known until much later.

AUVs range in size from man-portable lightweight vehicles to large diameter vehicles of over 10 metres length. Large vehicles have advantages in terms of endurance and sensor payload capacity; smaller vehicles benefit significantly from lower logistics. The market is effectively split into three areas: scientific, commercial offshore, and defence related applications. The majority of these roles utilize a similar design and operate in a cruise (torpedo-type) mode, collecting data while following a preplanned route at speeds between 1 and 4 knots.

In military applications, the U.S. Navy Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) Master Plan identified missions including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; mine countermeasures; anti-submarine warfare; inspection/identification; oceanography; communication/navigation network nodes; payload delivery; information operations; and time-critical strikes. By 2014, the Navy Master Plan divided all UUVs into four classes: man-portable, lightweight, heavyweight, and large. In 2019, the Navy ordered five Orca UUVs, its first acquisition of unmanned submarines with combat capability.

Reader's Guide

Autonomous underwater vehicles have become an attractive alternative for underwater search and exploration since they are cheaper than manned vehicles. The oil and gas industry uses AUVs to make detailed maps of the seafloor before building subsea infrastructure, allowing pipelines and subsea completions to be installed cost-effectively with minimum environmental disruption. AUVs enable survey companies to conduct precise surveys of areas where traditional bathymetric surveys would be less effective or too costly, and post-lay pipe surveys including pipeline inspection are now possible. Scientists use AUVs to study lakes, the ocean, and the ocean floor, affixing sensors such as conductivity-temperature-depth sensors, fluorometers, and pH sensors to measure various elements, compounds, and microscopic life. The Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington has created iterations of its Seaglider AUV platform since the 1950s, originally designed for oceanographic research but later attracting interest from the U.S. Navy and the oil and gas industry. AUVs have been used to find wreckage of missing airplanes, such as Air France Flight 447 and Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. In military contexts, AUVs have been employed in attacks on naval vessels and facilities, and navies have adapted defenses and fleet strategies in response. Hundreds of different AUVs have been designed over the past 50 or so years, with around 10 companies selling vehicles on the international market.

Did You Know?

• The first AUV, SPURV, was developed in 1957 at the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory.
• Homing torpedoes can be considered a subclass of AUVs.
• The U.S. Navy ordered five Orca UUVs in 2019, its first acquisition of unmanned submarines with combat capability.
• The COTSBot AUV uses a neural network to identify and inject bile salts into crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef.

Origins in Arctic Waters

The story of autonomous underwater vehicles begins in 1957 at the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory, where engineers built the Special Purpose Underwater Research Vehicle, or SPURV, to collect oceanographic data in Arctic waters. This pioneering machine weighed 484 kilograms, could descend to 3,650 meters, and operated for up to 5.5 hours per mission. It served the university's research program until 1979, at which point development of SPURV II commenced to improve both maneuverability and sensing capabilities. The 1970s saw further momentum: scientists at the Autonomous and Control Processes Institute studied the AUV called SCAT, which led to the introduction of two new models, L1 and L2, in 1974. L1 was dedicated to advancing the underlying technology, while L2 focused on oceanographic mapping. By the early 2000s, the field had expanded to include at least ten distinct AUV designs, spanning screw-driven platforms, underwater gliders, and bionic-inspired vehicles.

The Operational Divide Between ROUVs and AUVs

Unmanned underwater vehicles split into two fundamentally different operational philosophies. Remotely operated underwater vehicles, or ROUVs, exist primarily to replace human divers in hazardous conditions, performing surveillance, patrolling, and industrial or educational tasks under direct manual control. They typically carry a camera, actuators, sensors, and a mechanical gripper for grasping objects. That gripper, however, disrupts the vehicle's weight distribution, meaning a human operator must assist at all times. The stakes can be enormous: the US Navy's Submarine Rescue Diving Recompression System, for instance, is designed to save up to 16 people at depths reaching 2,000 feet, a mission so critical that it demands constant human oversight. Autonomous underwater vehicles, by contrast, operate entirely without an operator. Their sizes span from just a few kilograms to thousands, and their propulsion methods have evolved from early screw propeller thrusters to modern automatic buoyancy control systems, reflecting a shift toward greater independence and endurance.

Power, Endurance, and the Glider Revolution

A major technological turning point arrived in the late 1980s when the Russian Institute of Marine Technology Problems introduced the Solar Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, or SAUV, in 1987. By mounting solar panels on the vehicle, engineers unlocked the ability to run longer exploration missions without surfacing for maintenance or recharging. This solar approach was carried into SAUV II and made features like GPS tracking and heavier payloads more practical because charging became straightforward. The 1980s also saw the creation of ARCS in 1983 by ISE Ltd in partnership with International Submarine Engineering, a platform equipped with a 32-bit Motorola processor that enabled remote control. ARCS served as a testbed for improving battery life, navigation, and communication systems, with its first dive occurring in 1987. Then, in 1995, breakthroughs in battery technology gave birth to underwater gliders, vehicles capable of remaining submerged for weeks or even months, fundamentally extending the temporal reach of underwater exploration.

From Laboratory to Geopolitics and Warfare

What began as a research tool has become entangled in international tensions and modern warfare. In the 2000s, growing international demand pushed UUVs beyond government laboratories into commercial and industrial markets, with funding for development rising alongside the number of users. The 2016 South China Sea incident highlighted the geopolitical sensitivity of these platforms: a Chinese warship seized a U.S. Navy underwater drone during retrieval by the survey ship USNS Bowditch. The Pentagon confirmed the drone was unarmed and used for gathering weather and temperature data, and China returned it within days. In the 2020s, Ukraine's Toloka TLK-150, developed by Brave1, demonstrated military utility in the Black Sea. Measuring 2.5 meters with twin thrusters on wing-like stabilizers, it was praised for stealth and survivability over range. An advanced variant reportedly carries a payload approaching 5,000 kilograms of explosives and has been credited with damaging vessels and the Kerch Bridge. Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman unveiled the Manta Ray for DARPA in May 2024, modeled after the manta ray.