Technology Needs for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

This paper considers the technology needs for autonomous underwater vehicles as the middle layer of a three-layer process. The first layer is the high level User Requirement, which may be stated in the form of business objectives such as ‘competitive running cost’ or ‘less than 1 hour per week downtime’. These business objectives map on to the middle layer of specific, but generic technology needs such as ‘lightweight pressure vessels’ or ‘energy-efficient propulsion’. Finally, these technology needs may be met by a number of candidate solutions, forming the third layer, for example, ‘composite materials’ or ‘fuel cells’. The time horizon for the adoption of candidate solutions probably spans at least a decade. Some are the subject of current research by the marine technology community, others are in development by other parts of the science and engineering base or by industry and some are on or even over the horizon. This three-layer approach to setting out the technology needs provides for a clear focus on user needs and avoids the pitfall of focusing on challenging technological problems that may not lie on the critical path to making autonomous underwater vehicles a commercial success. For, only by becoming a commercial success for their manufacturers can AUVs be afforded in the numbers needed to contribute to marine science and industry.