A Review of Virtual Simulators for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)

This paper overviews graphical simulators used for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) development. Graphical simulators allow researchers to develop autonomous software without the need for the actual vehicle. There are many graphical simulators developed to date, for somebody who is involved in AUV research it becomes difficult to decide which simulator to use without going through extensive literature review, this then necessitate a summary and classification of available simulators. Instead of a review of all underwater virtual environments developed to date, the paper describes a selection which only reflects the authors’ preference and proposes a classification.