Recent advances in Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technology have facilitated the
collection of oceanographic data at a fraction of the cost of ship‐based sampling methods.
Unlike oceanographic data collection in the deep ocean, operation of AUVs in coastal
regions exposes them to the risk of collision with ships and land. Such concerns are
particularly prominent for slow‐moving AUVs since ocean current magnitudes are often
strong enough to alter the planned path significantly. Prior work using predictive ocean …

Path planning is the process of generating an optimal sequence of waypoints from a start
configuration to a desired goal configuration under constraints (eg, avoiding obstacles,
respecting time/energy budgets). In this thesis, we study the problem of risk-aware planning.
Specifically, we design, develop, and experimentally validate optimal paths for Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in the open ocean in the presence of navigational hazards
such as ships and other obstacles. A novel aspect of this work is the introduction of ocean …