A swarm of unmanned vehicles in the shallow ocean: A survey

With the rapid development of offshore exploration, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have come in great diversities depending on their particular specifications in civil and military practices. We focus on AUV swarms in the shallow ocean for their potentialities in economic and military uses as well as in scientific investigations. Nowadays, the advanced technologies of perception, communication, and control in underwater environment give the AUV abilities to perform certain tasks in the shallow ocean. Still, many missions require the large-scale AUV swarms due to the complexities of the tasks and the uncertainties of the environment. In this paper, we start with the introduction of underwater technologies in AUVs. Then we induce the AUV swarms and present several key methods to form swarms and to keep collaboration. Finally, we propose some necessitates technological advances that can facilitate the application of the AUV swarms in the shallow ocean.