State of the Art of Solar Powered Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

This article presents the state of the art of underwater vehicles and their evolution from 1945 to date. A description of developments in all aspects of design and energy source, starting with externally propelled and unmanned vehicles to the torpedo- capable vehicles that can carry a person is presented. The first small- sized high speed submarines for their time are described then. After these, all remotely operated vehicles with the potential to manipulate objects and images are presented. The review continues with autonomous vehicles with additional elements such as, route planning, and inertial navigation systems. It finishes with a variation of the latest developments, which provide the possibility of using alternative energy as a power source such as, in this case, solar energy.