Underwater Robotics

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Overview

Underwater robotics studies how vehicles and soft or bio-inspired machines move, sense, and perform tasks in environments where visibility, communication, and dynamics are challenging. Work combines cameras, sonar, Doppler velocity logs, and inertial sensors for localization and mapping, with methods such as sensor-fusion SLAM, model-predictive control, reinforcement learning, and multi-robot coordination. Researchers test these approaches in simulators, pools, and field deployments for tasks including seabed inspection, docking, tracking, and manipulation. A central challenge is making systems reliable across changing currents and degraded sensors while transferring models and policies from simulation to real water with limited energy and communication.

Latest papers

CardsList

149 papers14 papers in the last four weeks, down 53% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. SVIn+: Multi-Modal Framework for Robust Underwater State Estimation using 3D Sonar, Visual-Inertial, Water-Pressure, and DVL

    Oct 27, 2026Chinmay Burgul, Xiaoming Zhao, Yewei Huang +4Robot State EstimationUnderwater Robotics

    Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. · Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA · Aquaculture Robotics and Automation Group, SINTEF Ocean

  2. Conditional Diffusion Generation of DVL and Inertial Signals for Underwater Navigation

    Oct 25, 2026Michal Levin, Itzik KleinSynthetic Data GenerationAutonomous Underwater Navigation

    University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave 199, Haifa, 3498838, Israel

  3. A GPU-Resident Pipeline for Multi-Robot 3D Inspection with Limited Perception

    Oct 19, 2026Kryštof Pšenička, Stefan EdelkampRobotic InspectionMulti-Robot Motion Planning

    Department of Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematical Logic, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

  4. AQUAACT: A Joystick-Level Underwater Teleoperation Dataset and Closed-Loop Benchmark

    Oct 18, 2026Zhenqi Wu, Trung Tien Dong, Aditya Penumarti +5Underwater RoboticsVLA Model Training

    University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA. · University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. · Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

  5. Adaptive Prescribed Performance Trajectory Tracking for Uncertain Autonomous Underwater Vehicles With Input Saturation

    Oct 14, 2026Athanasios K. Gkesoulis, Christos Vlachos, George K. Fourlas +2Robot Trajectory TrackingAdaptive Control

    The authors are with the Robotics Institute, Athena Research Center, Marousi, Greece · The authors are with the Division of Systems and Automatic Control, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece · The authors are with the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, School of Sciences, University of Thessaly, Lamia, Greece

  6. Benchmarking 3D Reconstruction for Under-Ice Robotic Perception in Arctic Environments

    Oct 13, 2026Klára Orbán, Ashwin Nedungadi, Ana-Ştefania Kogălniceanu +53D ReconstructionUnderwater 3D Reconstruction

    Faculty of Mathematics & Computer Science, Babes,-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania · Institute of Visual & Analytic Computing, University of Rostock, Germany

  7. A Unified Dynamics Framework for Reinforcement Learning and Classical Control of a Six-DOF Pipeline-Tracking ROV in NVIDIA Isaac Sim

    Oct 4, 2026Cheng Siong Chin, M. Venkateshkumar, Jianhua ZhangRL ControlUnderwater Robotics

    Faculty of Science, Agriculture, and Engineering, Newcastle University Singapore, Singapore 828608, Singapore · Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India · School of Information and Control Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266525, China

  8. Leveraging Cost-effective Robotics for K-12 STEM Education through Water Quality Monitoring Tasks

    Oct 3, 2026Rishi Mukherjee, Andrew Ruiz, Travis Henderson +6Robotics EducationRobotic Data Collection

    Dept. CSE, MnRI, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN · Michigan Tech · Hitech Kids

  9. WasserMan: Benchmark for Underwater Manipulation Policy Learning

    Oct 3, 2026Danil Belov, Artem Erkhov, Sergei Parsegov +1Underwater RoboticsRobot Manipulation Benchmarks

    Central University, Moscow, Russia · Center for Engineering Systems and Sciences, Moscow, Russia · Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sirius Federal Territory, Russia +1

  10. MOSAIC-SV: Real-Time Adaptive Identification of Vessel Dynamics for the Control and Deployment of Aquatic Robots

    Oct 2, 2026Wensen Liu, Jerry Peng, Shravani Vedagiri +1Robot Dynamics IdentificationOnline System Identification

    Mechanical Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

  11. Towards Physical Underwater Robotic Assistance for Scuba Diver Movement in Confined Spaces

    Oct 1, 2026Demetrious T. Kutzke, Junaed SattarRoboticsUnderwater Robotics

  12. Active Mapping of Underwater Litter Using Camera-Sonar Fusion

    Sep 30, 2026David Rete, Patrick Boros, Lucian BusoniuActive SensingUnderwater Robotics

    Department of Automation Technical University of Cluj-Napoca Romania

  13. Onboard Vision and MPC Navigation for Underwater Robots: An Open BlueROV2 Platform for Multi-Robot Experiments & Docking

    Sep 29, 2026Victor Nan Fernandez-Ayala, Wiktor Kowalczyk, Cezary Banaszek +1Robot Trajectory TrackingUnderwater Robotics

    Department of Decision and Control Systems, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

  14. Multifunctional Locomotion Control of Multi-Jointed BURs with Swimming and gait Capabilities

    Sep 29, 2026Takumi Asada, Hideo Furuhashi, Kenta Tabata +2Robotic ControlRobot Locomotion

    Utsunomiya University, 7-1-2 Yoto, Utsunomiya, Tochigi, 321-8585, Japan · Aichi Institute of Technology, 1247 Yachigusa, Yakusa, Toyota, Aichi, 470-0392, Japan

  15. All You Need Is Low Fidelity: Zero-Shot Sim-to-Real of Learned Robotic Fish Control

    Sep 29, 2026Liam Maloney, Simon Ramchandani, Mike Y. Michelis +2Robotic ControlRobotics Simulation

    Soft Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich, Switzerland · ETH AI Center, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

  16. AquaWAM: A Dynamics-aware World Action Model for Underwater Embodied Agents

    Sep 27, 2026Cunhao Zhu, Yifeng Wang, Dongliang Xu +3Robot Dynamics LearningAction-Conditioned World Models

    Shandong University (sdu.edu.cn) · Beijing Institute of Technology (bit.edu.cn)

  17. AquaBEV-Nav: Learned BEV Occupancy for Underwater Navigation and Exploration

    Sep 26, 2026Trung Tien Dong, Zhenqi Wu, Sahasra Kondapalli +3Autonomous Underwater NavigationUnderwater Robotics

    1ERA Lab, University of South Florida, Florida, USA · University of Maryland- College Park, College Park, Maryland · 2YES Lab, University of South Florida, Florida, USA

  18. CoralPlan: Observation Skill Selection and Execution for Underwater Robotic Inspection

    Sep 25, 2026Yuer Gao, Yu Zhao, Yi CaiUnderwater RoboticsRobotic Inspection

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

  19. Underwater C3-JEPA: An Object-Centric Cross-View World Model for ROV Salvage

    Sep 24, 2026Yuncong Yang, Jinlong Li, Yulong Xue +4World Models for RoboticsJoint-Embedding Predictive Architecture

    Underwater Engineering Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

  20. A Tendon-Driven Robotic Jellyfish with Constrained Soft Actuation and Depth Control via Reinforcement Learning

    Sep 24, 2026Jiarui Peng, Yutong Wu, Zelong Wang +5Underwater RoboticsTendon-Driven Actuation

    Hong Kong Embodied AI Lab, Hong Kong SAR, China · The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China · The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China

  21. Vision-based Underwater Formation Control With Input Saturations via Barrier Lyapunov Functions

    Sep 22, 2026Nicola De Carli, João Zenário, Victor Nan Fernandez-Ayala +1Multi-Robot Formation ControlLyapunov-Based Control

  22. Odometry-Aided Real-Time Mapping for Underwater Robots Using Forward-Looking Sonar

    Sep 21, 2026Siyuan Du, Kanzhong Yao, Youdong Wang +5Occupancy Grid MappingUnderwater Imaging

    Institute of Artificial Intelligence (TeleAI), China Telecom, China. · Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

  23. AquaOrbit: Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning for Underwater Target Orbiting under Intermittent Visual Feedback

    Sep 21, 2026Kanzhong Yao, Jinyi Leng, Hao Zhang +2RL ControlSim-to-Real Transfer

    Institute of Artificial Intelligence (TeleAI), China Telecom, China. · Harbin Engineering University, China. · Tongji University, China.

  24. FinsSim: A Reality-Aligned Integrated Simulation Platform for Underwater Robot Learning

    Sep 20, 2026Yu Zhang, Yuanmingqing Song, Xiangyun Rao +4Robotic ControlRobotics Simulation

    Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China · School of Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China · Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

  25. Towards Reliable Underwater Diver-Robot Interaction: Gesture Design, Interaction Logic, and Real-World Evaluation

    Sep 20, 2026Yingqi Liu, Kanzhong Yao, Zimeng Peng +4Robotic ControlGesture Recognition

    University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China. · Institute of Artificial Intelligence (TeleAI), China Telecom, Shanghai 200232, China.

  26. AquaCap: A Training-Free Underwater Embodied Agent with Code-as-Policy

    Sep 19, 2026Xiaoshi Li, Yule Xu, Chunghiu Kong +5Underwater RoboticsAutonomous Underwater Navigation

    Sun Yat-sen University · Dalian University of Technology · Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory

  27. AquaWorld: Structure-Consistent Underwater World Generation for Robot Simulation

    Sep 19, 2026Bin Peng, Tiandong Zhang, Ruidong Wang +2Robotics SimulationSynthetic Data Generation for Robotics

    State Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China · School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China · Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China

  28. Characterizing Wildlife Response to Biomimetic and Conventional Underwater Vehicles

    Sep 18, 2026Huy Pham, Levi Cai, Yogesh Girdhar +2Underwater RoboticsRobotics

  29. MarineCraft: Enabling Rapid Prototyping of Underwater Robots via Modular Construction

    Sep 18, 2026Yuta SugiuraRoboticsUnderwater Robotics

    Department of Information and Computer Science, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan

  30. Towards Effective Visual-Inertial SLAM with Passive-Only Sensors for Low-Cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

    Sep 17, 2026Grant Schwidder, David Widhalm, Junaed SattarVisual-Inertial SLAMAutonomous Underwater Navigation

    Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA