Review on Unmanned Underwater Robotics, Structure Designs, Materials, Sensors, Actuators, and Navigation Control

Since its beginning, around the 50s decade, until present days, the area of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) has considerably grown through time; those have been used for many tasks and applications, from bomb searching and recovery to sea exploration. Initially, these robots were used mainly for military and scientific purposes. However, nowadays, they are very much extended into civils, and it is not hard to find them being used for recreation. In this context, the present research is an effort to make a walkthrough of evolution in this area, showing a diversity of structure designs, used materials, sensor and instrumentation technologies, kinds and the number of actuators employed, navigation control techniques, and what is new in development trends. The paper gives a clear starting point for those who are initializing into this research area; also, it brings some helpful knowledge for those who already have experience.