ABSTRACT
Operating Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) is not an activity that is free from risk. When AUVs were experimental platforms developed by the military and civilian research communities the major risks were mainly technical. Engineers and project managers were very conversant with these risks, and applied procedures to mitigate technical risk during the specification, design and construction of the vehicles. While AUVs share many areas of technical risk with other underwater systems, their autonomous nature means that several aspects require particular attention. These include, among others: robustness of the self-contained navigation system; reliability of the mission management software; integrity of the mission programme; reliability of the control surfaces and actuators and robustness of the collision avoidance, emergency abort and vehicle recovery systems.
