In the context of autonomous exploration and observation of water areas by means of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), this work describes the improvements developed with respect to the advanced mission control system and the integration with multiple and modular sensing devices, in particular underwater cameras and sonar systems. The experimental proof of the concept validity is obtained testing the overall framework on the CNR-ISSIA Charlie USV. Moreover, to enhance the interaction capabilities between human operator and autonomous platform, different driving and commanding devices, including multi-purpose reconfigurable console and smartphone applications, have been developed and integrated with the already existing architecture. Data gathered from the experimental campaign carried out in Murter (Croatia), within the Breaking The Surface 2011 training field, are reported.

 This paper presents an implementation of the Sigma-point Unscented Kalman Filter (SP-UKF) used in the simulated task of open-water navigation of two types of AUV. The first simulated vehicle is a large cruise-type vehicle modeled after the Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon vehicle Infante. The second is a small, almost fully actuated vehicle with tunnel thrusters modeled after the SSC Pacific, San Diego vehicle CETUS II. The SP-UKF shows itself, after properly taking care of implementational details, to be a robust methodology which allows for efficient and correct navigation, aided by several typical sensors (DVL, USBL hydroacoustic localization systems, AHRS). The influence of currents on the navigation, and the ability of estimating the current components is also researched. The navigation fix is fed back to the low-level control loops aboard each vehicles to achieve sane and rational navigation of the waterspace that follows stably and robustly the command signals.

 Recent years have seen an increasingly interest by the scientific community in the realization of minimally invasive technologies and tools for carrying out activities like exploration and intervention in the marine environment. This paper will describe the design and realization of an assisted guidance system for a Micro ROV, which is part of a more complex robotic system, together with a large ROV. Within this framework, the smaller robot is employed as a mobile appendix of the larger one, while the latter acts as an actuated garage and a supply vessel of the first. During operations, the ROVs guidance systems are decoupled, that is the larger one works in station keeping or in path following, either automatically or under the supervision of an expert operator, while the smaller one is teleoperated by a pilot not necessarily skilled. This structure allows scientists like marine biologists, archaeologists and oceanographers to operate directly the Micro ROV, combining their knowledge of the application domain with the ability of professional ROV pilots. The described robotic structure is potentially very efficient and versatile, but its realization implies the development of solutions which could support the Micro ROV unskilled operators. For this reason, the present paper focuses on the description of an assisted guidance system for Micro ROV aimed at achieving the objective above. The system acts by forcing the Micro ROVs pilot to keep the vehicle within a given range from the large ROV, by means of a reactive joystick. Generation of the reactive force is described, and the use of the assisted guidance system in performing underwater data gathering missions of an archaeological site is discussed.

 Nowadays, autonomous intervention is getting more attention in the underwater robotics community. Few research projects on this matter are currently under development. In this context, and after a first successful experience in the RAUVI Spanish project (2009-2011), the authors are currently involved in the TRIDENT project (2010-2013), funded by the European Commission. To succeed in autonomous intervention, an AUV endowed with a manipulator and with a high degree of autonomy is essential. The complexity of the required robotic system is very high and the system integration process becomes critical. This paper presents the problems being solved in TRIDENT, from a systems integration perspective. As a case study, some results, achieved during the last experiments carried out in the Roses harbor (Girona) in October 2011 will be presented, to demonstrate the capabilities exhibited by the AUV for Intervention under development. The experiments were focused on the problem of autonomously searching and recovering a black-box mock-up that was previously thrown to an unknown position. This paper presents the hardware and software integration aspects that were necessary in order to address such a challenging problem.

 Dynamic positioning (DP) in marine robotics is a valuable feature that can significantly improve vessel performance at sea. In order to have satisfactory DP behavior, a sufficiently accurate mathematical model and parameters have to be known. Performing extensive identification trials at sea is a tedious and time consuming task. This paper demonstrates the application of a quick identification method based on self-oscillations (ISO) applied to all controllable degrees of freedom (surge, sway and yaw) of a smallscale tanker model. In the paper we prove the consistency of the applied identification method. The identified model parameters are then used to tune DP controller parameters. The high quality of the modelbased DP controller performance is demonstrated, proving the applicability of the ISO method for DP controller tuning.

 The OceanRINGS is a set of components that should be installed on an ROV and inside the Control Cabin, in order to increase the level of automation, to make ROV operations easier and save expensive ship time by 20% or more. ROV LATIS is a next generation smart ROV, designed as a prototype platform to demonstrate OceanRINGS validity & operability and to prove smart technologies developed in the Mobile and Marine Robotics Research Centre, UL. Research outcomes are applicable to the growing international off-shore oil and gas sector, and also for future deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of ocean energy devices. System validation and technology demonstration was performed through a series of test trials with different support vessels off the west coast of Ireland. Selected results of the most recent field trials are presented in this paper.