Guidance and control of autonomous vehicles

An overview is presented of the type of existing autonomous vehicles, their missions as well as type of methods implemented for turning the vehicles autonomous. The emphasis is given to Autonomous Surface Vehicles although some reference is also made to Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. The Autonomous Surface Vehicles allow to do repetitive tasks like sea data collection or search and rescue in a much more economical way than normal size vessels. Some interesting novel applications of these types of vehicles are also covered. An important objective here is to describe their application in a specific type of mission that is their use in coastal and inland activities and to present a brief description of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle developed by the authors.