Unmanned Surface Vessels in Marine Surveillance and Management: Advances in Communication, Navigation, Control, and Data-Driven Research

Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) have emerged as vital tools in marine monitoring and management due to their high efficiency, low cost, and flexible deployment capabilities. This paper presents a systematic review focusing on four core areas of USV applications: communication networking, navigation...

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Main Authors: Zhichao Lv, Xiangyu Wang, Gang Wang, Xuefei Xing, Chenlong Lv, Fei Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/5/969
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author Zhichao Lv
Xiangyu Wang
Gang Wang
Xuefei Xing
Chenlong Lv
Fei Yu
author_facet Zhichao Lv
Xiangyu Wang
Gang Wang
Xuefei Xing
Chenlong Lv
Fei Yu
author_sort Zhichao Lv
collection DOAJ
description Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) have emerged as vital tools in marine monitoring and management due to their high efficiency, low cost, and flexible deployment capabilities. This paper presents a systematic review focusing on four core areas of USV applications: communication networking, navigation, control, and data-driven operations. First, the characteristics and challenges of acoustic, electromagnetic, and optical communication methods for USV networking are analyzed, with an emphasis on the future trend toward multimodal communication integration. Second, a comprehensive review of global navigation, local navigation, cooperative navigation, and autonomous navigation technologies is provided, highlighting their applications and limitations in complex environments. Third, the evolution of USV control systems is examined, covering group control, distributed control, and adaptive control, with particular attention given to fault tolerance, delay compensation, and energy optimization. Finally, the application of USVs in data-driven marine tasks is summarized, including multi-sensor fusion, real-time perception, and autonomous decision-making mechanisms. This study aims to reveal the interaction and coordination mechanisms among communication, navigation, control, and data-driven operations from a system integration perspective, providing insights and guidance for the intelligent operations and comprehensive applications of USVs in marine environments.
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publishDate 2025-05-01
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series Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
spelling doaj-art-c18cd2a9b1e441e0b50e015c0dec8cc52025-08-20T03:14:39ZengMDPI AGJournal of Marine Science and Engineering2077-13122025-05-0113596910.3390/jmse13050969Unmanned Surface Vessels in Marine Surveillance and Management: Advances in Communication, Navigation, Control, and Data-Driven ResearchZhichao Lv0Xiangyu Wang1Gang Wang2Xuefei Xing3Chenlong Lv4Fei Yu5College of Marine Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Marine Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Marine Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Marine Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Marine Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaCollege of Marine Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, ChinaUnmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) have emerged as vital tools in marine monitoring and management due to their high efficiency, low cost, and flexible deployment capabilities. This paper presents a systematic review focusing on four core areas of USV applications: communication networking, navigation, control, and data-driven operations. First, the characteristics and challenges of acoustic, electromagnetic, and optical communication methods for USV networking are analyzed, with an emphasis on the future trend toward multimodal communication integration. Second, a comprehensive review of global navigation, local navigation, cooperative navigation, and autonomous navigation technologies is provided, highlighting their applications and limitations in complex environments. Third, the evolution of USV control systems is examined, covering group control, distributed control, and adaptive control, with particular attention given to fault tolerance, delay compensation, and energy optimization. Finally, the application of USVs in data-driven marine tasks is summarized, including multi-sensor fusion, real-time perception, and autonomous decision-making mechanisms. This study aims to reveal the interaction and coordination mechanisms among communication, navigation, control, and data-driven operations from a system integration perspective, providing insights and guidance for the intelligent operations and comprehensive applications of USVs in marine environments.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/5/969unmanned surface vehiclecommunication networkingnavigationcontroldata-drive
spellingShingle Zhichao Lv
Xiangyu Wang
Gang Wang
Xuefei Xing
Chenlong Lv
Fei Yu
Unmanned Surface Vessels in Marine Surveillance and Management: Advances in Communication, Navigation, Control, and Data-Driven Research
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
unmanned surface vehicle
communication networking
navigation
control
data-drive
title Unmanned Surface Vessels in Marine Surveillance and Management: Advances in Communication, Navigation, Control, and Data-Driven Research
title_full Unmanned Surface Vessels in Marine Surveillance and Management: Advances in Communication, Navigation, Control, and Data-Driven Research
title_fullStr Unmanned Surface Vessels in Marine Surveillance and Management: Advances in Communication, Navigation, Control, and Data-Driven Research
title_full_unstemmed Unmanned Surface Vessels in Marine Surveillance and Management: Advances in Communication, Navigation, Control, and Data-Driven Research
title_short Unmanned Surface Vessels in Marine Surveillance and Management: Advances in Communication, Navigation, Control, and Data-Driven Research
title_sort unmanned surface vessels in marine surveillance and management advances in communication navigation control and data driven research
topic unmanned surface vehicle
communication networking
navigation
control
data-drive
url https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/5/969
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