9616245 Blidberg Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) technology has matured to the point where it offers ocean scientists a solution to the data collection problem: intelligent autonomous mobile platforms. In order to realize the full potential of such sensor platforms, however, some basic AUV research and development must be undertaken. This project is designed to address a fundamental "dual" need currently experienced by AUV researchers. One aspect of that need can be expressed as the lack of an underlying description of the behaviors necessary for intelligent mobile autonomy. The other aspect of this need is the lack of a good implementation environment for candidates to this set of behaviors for autonomy. The goal of this project is to develop that description, and to develop a set of tools with which to evaluate the description. There are, therefore, two objectives to pursue: (1) answer the question "what are the required behaviors for a truly autonomous underwater mobile agent?" and (2) develop the tools necessary to validate candidate behavior sets. ***
