There have been great advances in the use of underwater and sky robots that either remote controlled by an operator or partially or totally autonomously operated.
In terms of water the general category is called unmanned underwater vehicles which includes the two groups of ROV remotely operated underwater vehicles and the AUV the autonomous underwater vehicles. AUVs in the military are called unmanned undersea vehicles.
The US navy has 4 weight categories for their UUVs and the uses for them fall into categories like:
- anti submarine activity
- serveillance, intelligence
- mine detection
- strikes
- communication
- oceanography
Some of the robotics companies in this area include names like:
- Bluefin
- Teledyne Gavia
- Kongsberg Maritime
- OceanScan
- Atlas Electronik
The topics to discuss in the unique underwater world are the reliance on sensors, power systems, the types of motors or propulsion, how they can navigate and communicate since GPS and radio waves do not function well under water