At the start of November, Artur Lidtke (FSI), Daniel Roper (NOC), Georgios Salavasidis (NOC and UoS), Jon Downes (FSI), and Sophia M Schillai (FSI and NOC) headed to Tokyo for the AUV2016 conference.
From newest AUV developments in sensors and navigation to multi vehicle cooperation, the AUV2016 conference covered the current state of the art in Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. Our own contributions ranged from Computational Fluid Dynamics for the EU H2020 Bridges glider project, to vehicle risk and safe navigation of AUV in unknown terrain with restricted sensor input and novel power supply solutions.
Besides presentations, the conference included a demonstration of the impressive AUVs at the University of Tokyo and a student competition for designing a novel AUV, in which Sophia managed to impress the 8 international judges and placed first with her Pipefish AUV.
 On the last day, group discussions on the current gaps in AUV development gave us the chance to exchange ideas and get the perspective of experienced AUV researchers from across the world.
After the conference we were given a tour of the headquarters of JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), including their newest research vessel KAIMEI, the manned submersible SHINKAI and the 10 m long URASHIMA AUV.
IMAGE CAPTION: Blair Thornton, who has now joined us in Southampton, showing the BOSS-A AUV to Artur and Sophia at The University of Tokyo