Review Scientific Challenges and Present Capabilities in Underwater Robotic Vehicle Design and Navigation for Oceanographic Exploration Under-Ice Laughlin D. L. Barker 1,2 , Michael V. Jakuba 3 , Andrew D. Bowen 3 , Christopher R. German 4 , Ted Maksym 3 , Larry Mayer 4,5 , Antje Boetius 6 , Pierre Dutrieux 7,8 and Louis L. Whitcomb 1,3,* 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA;
[email protected] 2 Department of Marine Operations, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA 3 Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA;
[email protected] (M.V.J.);
[email protected] (A.D.B.);
[email protected] (T.M.) 4 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA;
[email protected] (C.R.G.);
[email protected] (L.M.) 5 Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA 6 Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany;
[email protected] 7 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA;
[email protected] 8 British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 30 June 2020; Accepted: 6 August 2020; Published: 11 August 2020 Abstract: This paper reviews the scientific motivation and challenges, development, and use of underwater robotic vehicles designed for use in ice-covered waters, with special attention paid to the navigation systems employed for under-ice deployments. Scientific needs for routine access under fixed and moving ice by underwater robotic vehicles are reviewed in the contexts of geology and geophysics, biology, sea ice and climate, ice shelves, and seafloor mapping.