Navigation Systems of Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicles

Dear Colleagues,

Autonomous vehicles are becoming more and more prevalent in different areas of the industry and our everyday life. Their dynamic development can also be observed for use in maritime environments, where we can distinguish unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). The navigation process is one of the vital tasks that such marine crafts have to perform. The vehicle has to be able to move safely between its current position and a defined final position, allowing for collision avoidance with both static and dynamic obstacles. The application area of USVs and UUVs is very broad, and covers i.a. oceanographic research, maritime traffic and coastal areas monitoring, search and rescue, conducting inspections, maintenance, and surveillance tasks in the offshore industry.

This Special Issue is aimed at presenting high quality research and the state of the art in the area of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles. The design and development of navigation systems for USVs and UUVs is the main focus of this Special Issue; therefore, papers related to applied sensors and sensor fusion, obstacle avoidance methods and systems, motion control systems, and algorithms are welcome.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• autonomous navigation systems of USVs and UUVs;
• sensors and sensor fusion in USVs and UUVs;
• obstacle avoidance methods for USVs and UUVs;
• machine learning, swarm intelligence, and other computational intelligence methods for USVs and UUVs;
• motion control methods for USVs and UUVs;
• mission planning;
• USVs and UUVs applications;
• swarms of USVs and UUVs.

Dr. Agnieszka Lazarowska
Guest Editor

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