Adaptive Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: An Assessment of Their Effectiveness for Oceanographic Applications

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are practical tools for ocean observation. However, they tend to operate in an automatic rather than autonomous way. This reflects the attitudes and behaviors that individuals and organizations share when adopting new technology in this industry. This paper clarifies the factors that are preventing one important aspect of autonomy—adaptive mission planning (AMP)—from transitioning from research to commercial and bespoke AUVs. A total of 25 experts comprising AUV developers and users, with combined 237 years of experience, provided their views in a structured survey covering several different hypotheses. There is insufficient evidence to determine clearly a single reason for failure to adopt AMPs, but a primary cause is the paucity of demonstration trials. This view is irrespective of participants' years of experience. Managers, engineers, and technologists agree on the two most likely causes for failure to adopt AMPs. However, the differences between the assessments provided by researchers and these three professional groups are statistically significant, with p value <0.005. For researchers, complexity is one of the two most important inhibitory factors. We present recommendations to support the integration of AMP into AUVs substantiated by recent examples where government, industry, and researchers have developed and tested AMPs.