Directions of Development of the Autonomous Unmanned Underwater Vehicles. A Review

In the paper review of unmanned underwater vehicle (AUV) is presented. The description of main systems is depicted with focus on autonomous single vehicle as well as a swarm. As a consequence of development of AUV technology, research centers are focused on issues related to increasing the degree of their autonomy. Nowadays, mostly navigation and communication as well as high-efficient propeller systems are being developed. There are problems linking this issues. Their solutions includes development of new control laws containing algorithms to prevent collisions - for unmanned vehicles with elements of the underwater environment and for several underwater vehicles cooperating with each other in a swarm.