Development of a Collaborative Host-Guest Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Docking System for Inspection and Maintenance of Offshore Structures

The paper presents a collaborative unmanned underwater vehicle tandem where one vehicle acts as a host dock for the others. This configuration has advantages in situations where the differences in size, power, or autonomy between the host and guest vehicles complement each other to perform the assigned task more efficiently. The development focuses on inspecting and maintaining offshore structures but could be used in other applications.