Multiple AUV missions in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Within NOAA, the Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) is supporting an ad-hoc community of programs interested in applying AUVs to the scientific and operational needs of the agency. Three NOAA programs, in collaboration with OE, are in various stages of procuring AUVs for demonstration projects. These pilot projects would evaluate the benefits of AUVs in NOAA missions. Even though evaluations have just begun they point the way toward the use of multiple AUVs in NOAA. This paper briefly describes the current AUV programs and presents a vision for their expansion into cooperative or coordinated multiple AUV missions.