Oceanic Engineering Society Technology Committee, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles: Where have we been the last 18 years, and where are we going the next 18 years?

AUV's came into being in the late 80's. DARPA was the promoter of the technology. To expand their horizons, DARPA created the AUV Conference, a biannual twoday conference. This paper reviews the first 18 years of AUV technology conferences and workshops. The leader of this effort was the IEEEOceanic Engineering Society Technology Program Committee (TPC) Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) Group, headed by Claude P. Brancart. The paradigm is changing. Effective as of OCEANS'08 MTS/IEE Quebec, the new chair of the IEEEOES TPC UUV will be Dr. Hanumant Singh.