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 bi-annual two-day conference. This paper reviews the first 18 years of AUV technology conferences and workshops. The leader of this effort was the IEEE-Oceanic 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 IEEE-OES TPC UUV will be Dr. Hanumant Singh.