Underwater robot sensing technology: A survey

TLDR

Underwater robots are essential for marine exploration, yet complex environments limit current sensing technologies. This survey seeks to advance underwater sensing to enhance autonomous robot operation. The authors review platform development and key sensing modalities—acoustic, optical, magnetic, and bionic—and identify challenges and future directions such as multisource fusion and new materials.

Abstract

Underwater robot technologies are crucial for marine resource exploration and autonomous manipulation, and many breakthroughs have been achieved with key indicators (e.g., dive depth and navigation range). However, due to the complicated underwater environment, the state-of-the-art sensing technologies cannot handle all the needs of underwater observations. To improve the autonomous operating capacity of underwater robots, there is an urgent need to develop underwater sensing technology. Therefore, in this paper, we first introduce the development of underwater robot platforms. We then review some key sensing technologies such as underwater acoustic sensing, underwater optical sensing, underwater magnetic sensing, and underwater bionic sensing. Finally, we point out the challenges of underwater sensing technology and future directions in addressing these challenges, e.g., underwater bionic sensing, new underwater material development, multisource information fusion, and the construction of general test platforms.