Reflections on a decade of autonomous underwater vehicles operations for marine survey at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics

Abstract This paper describes insights gained from a decade of autonomous marine systems development at the University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Marine Robotics. Over the course of this time, we have deployed numerous vehicles and imaging platforms in support of applications in engineering science, marine ecology, archaeology and geoscience. We have operated an Australia-wide benthic observing program designed to deliver precisely navigated, repeat imagery of the seafloor. This initiative makes extensive use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to collect high-resolution stereo imagery, multibeam sonar and water column measurements on an annual or semi-annual basis at sites around Australia, spanning the full latitudinal range of the continent from tropical reefs in the north to temperate regions in the south. We have also contributed to expeditions to document coral bleaching, cyclone recovery, submerged neolithic settlement sites, ancient shipwrecks, methane seeps and deepwater hydrothermal vents. We briefly consider how automated tools for working with this imagery have facilitated the resulting science outcomes.