Giovanni Canales-Gómez

Marine robotics has become central to contemporary ocean exploration and conservation, providing unprecedented access, precision, and continuity in the observation of marine environments. This chapter examines the capabilities and emerging roles of autonomous underwater vehicles, remotely operated systems, and hybrid robotic platforms in mapping seafloor structures, monitoring ecological dynamics, and supporting restoration initiatives in sensitive habitats. It evaluates recent advances in perception, navigation, and machine-driven decision-making that enable robots to operate safely and adaptively in complex, uncertain, and data-scarce marine settings. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the integration of robotics with oceanographic sensors, artificial intelligence, and real-time communication infrastructures to enhance environmental intelligence. Ethical considerations, operational challenges, and future research pathways are also addressed to guide the responsible deployment of robotic technologies for long-term marine sustainability.

In this article, the model of a family of underwater vehicle multi-manipulator systems (UVMMS) is obtained by considering all its elements as parts of a unique system, the model includes the forces produced on the manipulators by the movement of the vehicle, as well as the reaction forces on the vehicle produced by the movement of the manipulators. The modeling process is completed using the Newton–Euler approach through the mobile arborescent kinematic chain. This work also presents different approaches to the use of numerical implementations of the proposed model, and simulation results are included to demonstrate that the model is capable to represent the interaction between the vehicle and the manipulators. The proposed model and simulations are important because they allow the design of control strategies that consider all the elements of the system instead of neglecting the interaction forces or considering the vehicle and the arms as uncoupled elements.

In this work, a wireless communication system based on magnetic coils for underwater vehicles is presented. Firstly, the mathematical model of magnetic field induction using magnetic coils is discussed. Then, a description of the proposed communication system is presented, including the main components of the transmitter and receiver module. The experimental results show that due to the properties of the magnetic field, the proposed communication system can work properly in different environments such as air or water with the same efficiency. Underwater tests were carried out in different water circumstances: varying the temperature in a range from 10 °C to 35 °C, varying concentrations of clay in a range from 0% to 10%, and varying the salinity concentration in a range from 1000 ppm ( parts per million) to 35,000 ppm. It was observed that these conditions do not affect the information transfer. Finally, the advantages of using the proposed system compared to existing submarine communication systems are discussed.