Guest Editorial Pushing for Higher Autonomy and Cooperative Behaviors in Maritime Robotics

The papers in this special section examine the technology of maritime robotics. These papers are the result of a collaborative effort between the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR), and RoboNation, a nonprofit robotics organization formerly known as AUVSI foundation. The field of maritime robotics is swiftly moving toward integration of air, surface, and subsurface autonomous systems. For example, where autonomous maritime systems (AMS) are composed of heterogeneous assets, surface vehicles are now often capable of transporting aerial and underwater vehicles, leveraging the benefits of each to increase mission endurance and capabilities. In seeking to integrate land, sea, and air vehicle systems, it is natural to look toward leveraging advances made separately in each domain. For example, substantial similarities exist between the desired behavioral capabilities of autonomous land vehicles and those of autonomous marine systems. Recent advances in the field of driverless cars may therefore be applicable to autonomous surface vessels, underwater vehicles, and even aerial vehicles.