What are ROVs and AUVs?
ROVs and AUVs are basically robot submarines. Neither ROVs nor AUVs are designed to carry people. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are underwater robots that are tethered to a mother ship and are controlled from onboard that ship. MBARI’s ROVs are about the size of small cars, and are used to collect samples, video images, and data, as well as to perform experiments and install and maintain underwater instruments. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are undersea robots that are not tethered to a mother ship. An AUVs is programmed at the surface, then navigates through the water and collect data under the control of their own internal computer system. When an AUV’s mission is completed, it returns to the surface (or to an underwater docking station) where its data can be retrieved.
