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Open research questions in Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems

100 gap statements mined from Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,065 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The paper identifies the gap in existing routing protocols for autonomous underwater systems, which lack efficient energy consumption and robust security mechanisms. The proposed EETAUV protocol addresses this gap by integrating a trust management framework and a 6G communication module.

    Energy-Efficient and Trust-Based Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Scheme for 6G-Enabled Internet of Underwater Things · 2025 · DOI

  • Limited bandwidth and high delay in underwater acoustic sensor networks. Severe energy constraints and the impracticality of battery replacement. The need to minimize environmental disruption while ensuring network functionality and reliability.

    AI-Driven Adaptive Communications for Energy-Efficient Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks · 2025 · DOI

  • The conclusion highlights key open questions and suggests future research directions, emphasizing the development of more adaptive and robust denoising techniques for dynamic underwater environments.

    Underwater Acoustic Signal Denoising Algorithms: A Survey of the State of the Art · 2025 · DOI

  • The zebrafish inner ear provides an understudied model system for understanding hair cell regeneration in organs that are highly conserved with their mammalian counterparts.

    Transdifferentiation is temporally uncoupled from progenitor pool expansion during hair cell regeneration in the zebrafish inner ear · 2024 · DOI

  • Therefore, the establishment of a secure link between the mobile AUV and the receiver remains unexplored.

    Joint Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Trajectory and Energy Optimization for Underwater Covert Communications · 2024 · DOI

  • The paper highlights the need for a prediction system that can enhance UWSN performance and energy efficiency.

    Machine Learning-Based Prediction System for Optimizing Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on developing countermeasures against wormhole attacks. Future research should focus on improving the performance of UANs. Future research should focus on analyzing the feasibility of wormhole attacks in other types of sensor networks.

    A Deep Dive into Wormhole Attacks in Underwater Acoustic Communication: From Theory to Practice · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research will focus on extending the proposed navigation strategy to cooperative multi-AUV systems, where multiple autonomous vehicles can collaboratively perform complex underwater missions.

    Adaptive Navigation Strategies for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Time-Varying Marine Environments · 2026 · DOI

  • The absence of global navigation satellite systems and limited communication capabilities in underwater environments. The high cost, limited repeatability, and operational risks of real-world experiments. The need for a system-level abstraction that captures key sensor characteristics.

    System-Level Modeling of Acoustic and Environmental Sensors for AUV Simulation · 2026 · DOI

  • Existing simulation frameworks do not accurately model sensor behavior. There is a need for a system-level abstraction that captures key sensor characteristics.

    System-Level Modeling of Acoustic and Environmental Sensors for AUV Simulation · 2026 · DOI

  • The study is based on simulation results, which may not accurately represent real-world conditions. The analysis is limited to a specific range of water types and UOWC link configurations.

    Underwater channel performance for optical LOS link under various aquatic environments · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for further research to optimize UOWC systems for various underwater applications. The effects of various underwater parameters on optical link performance are not yet fully understood. The development of more efficient and reliable underwater communication systems is a pressing challenge.

    Underwater channel performance for optical LOS link under various aquatic environments · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of standardized underwater acoustic channel models.

    Joint signal processing and coding for underwater acoustic communications using ORBGRAND · 2026 · DOI

  • Limited perception capabilities in unmanned marine vehicles. Inefficient planning and control strategies in complex environments. Limited swarm dynamics and coordination in multi-vehicle systems.

    Unmanned Marine Vehicles: Perception, Planning, Control and Swarm · 2026 · DOI

  • The traditional Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) may cause a decrease in filtering accuracy and divergence. The Adaptive Robust UKF (ARUKF) algorithm still grapples with issues of low filtering accuracy or even divergence.

    An Improved Unscented Kalman Filter Applied to Positioning and Navigation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles · 2025 · DOI

  • Communication is currently limited to a short-range (1–2 km) UHF link; extending this range would substantially enhance operational flexibility and reduce the risk of instrument loss.

    Application of a small AUV for mapping water column properties in the Baltic Sea · 2026 · DOI

  • The given CFL method has a number of advantages because it focuses on the specifics of underwater conditions such as low energy, low-bandwidth acoustic communications, and high packet loss. First, it employs hierarchical clustering, which enables local aggregation of the model in clusters and thereafter, sends to the central naval base.

    Federated Learning-Enabled Collaborative Intelligence for Energy-Constrained Underwater Sensor Networks in Naval Surveillance Systems · 2026 · DOI

  • Traditional methods are not optimal and are severely affected by channel state.

    Underwater Image Transmission System Based on Joint Coding Constellation Mapping and Hybrid-Driven OFDM Receiver · 2026 · DOI

  • Continued research, development, and integration of emerging technologies will drive the advancement of underwater positioning systems. The development of new technologies such as quantum clocks can have significant implications for underwater navigation and mapping.

    Paradigm-shifting the subaquatic frontier: advancements and prospects of integrated underwater systems for future applications · 2026 · DOI

  • Limited transmission capabilities underwater. High latency and propagation delays in acoustic communication. Coordinating data transmission for evaluation.

    Improving Underwater Object Detection with Cross-Media Communication · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research is needed to explore the application of BDA-QL in real-world underwater wireless sensor networks, - The performance of BDA-QL should be evaluated in more complex network scenarios, - Other optimization algorithms and machine learning techniques could be integrated into the BDA-QL framework to improve…

    Acoustic-Aware BDA-QL: A Hybrid Binary Dragonfly and Q-Learning Framework for Adaptive Clustering in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks · 2026 · DOI

  • Conduct real-world field trials to evaluate the framework under actual underwater acoustic conditions, including dynamic channel behavior, mobility, and environmental noise, - Refine the adaptive transmission strategies for practical…

    AI-Driven Adaptive Communications for Energy-Efficient Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks · 2025 · DOI

  • The scarcity of direct observations across large spatial and temporal scales. The extreme limitations in direct imagery of the deep seafloor, with less than 0.001% observed.

    PIRATE—Precision Imaging Real-Time Autonomous Tracker & Explorer · 2026 · DOI

  • Validation of the results with changed parameters. Comparison between Extended AODV and other cross-media routing protocols. Investigation of the impact of packet size, transmission rates, and dimension and number of participants.

    Improving Underwater Object Detection with Cross-Media Communication · 2026 · DOI

  • The repository is still under development, - The lack of standardized underwater acoustic channel models, - Limited information on the performance of the proposed framework in different…

    Joint signal processing and coding for underwater acoustic communications using ORBGRAND · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research should focus on developing countermeasures against wormhole attacks (“A Deep Dive into Wormhole Attacks in Underwater Acoustic Communication: From…”, 2026); (2) Future research will focus on extending the proposed navigation strategy to cooperative multi-AUV systems, where multiple autonomous vehicles can collaboratively perform complex underwater missions (“Adaptive Navigation Strategies for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in…”, 2026); (3) There is a need for a system-level abstraction that captures key sensor characteristics (“System-Level Modeling of Acoustic and Environmental Sensors for AUV Simulation”, 2026); (4) There is a need for further research to optimize UOWC systems for various underwater applications (“Underwater channel performance for optical LOS link under various aquatic…”, 2026); (5) The lack of standardized underwater acoustic channel models (“Joint signal processing and coding for underwater acoustic communications using…”, 2026). 100 gap statements have been mined from Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,065 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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