Its characteristic feature is that it is capable of autonomous interventions on the subsea installations, a task usually carried out by remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) or human divers.
Both methods of intervention require mobilization of surface support vessel which is necessary either to supply and retrieve the divers or to deploy and control the ROV at work.
After AUVs reached the stage of development allowing commercial application, hydrographic, fishing and oil exploration businesses quickly adapted them for several tasks like bottom mapping or water column measurements.
Such missions might include manipulating valves on an oilfield Christmas tree or, at a more advanced stage, retrieving a biological specimen from the seafloor for scientific study.
In the near future ROVs, AUVs and related underwater robots are expected to have truly human diver equivalent international capabilities.