Dexterous Underwater Manipulation from Onshore Locations: Streamlining Efficiencies for Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles

Underwater manipulation is a challenging problem. The state-of-the-art technology is dominated by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). ROV operations typically require an offshore crew consisting of, at minimum, an intendant (or supervisor), an operator, and a navigator. This crew must often be doubled or even tripled due to work shifts. In addition, customer representatives often wish to be physically present offshore. Furthermore, underwater intervention missions are still dominated by a significant amount of lowlevel, manual control of the manipulator(s) and of the vehicle itself. While there is a significant amount of research on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in general and fieldable solutions already exist for inspection and exploration missions, possibilities remain for adding intelligent autonomous functions for interventions.