Singapore AUV Challenge

Covering more than 70% of the Earth's surface,Oceans are the lifeblood of our planet. Yet, despite their importance, the ocean remains one of the least explored and most challenging environments on Earth. Extreme pressure, low visibility, corrosive conditions, and limited communication make underwater operations difficult and costly. Much of the underwater world can only be accessed and studied using autonomous systems.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are built to operate in these conditions without tethers or direct human control. Developing reliable underwater autonomy requires overcoming the absence of GPS, limited communication, degraded sensing in sometimes turbid water, and highly dynamic conditions. These challenges demand robust system integration and autonomy capable of handling uncertainty in real time.

These are precisely the challenges that the Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge (SAUVC) was created to address.

SAUVC is an international student-led robotics competition focused on the design and deployment of autonomous underwater vehicles. Now running for a decade, SAUVC has established itself as a leading platform for hands-on learning and practical experience in marine robotics.

Student participants at SAUVC 2025

Since its inception, the competition has brought together students, researchers, educators, and industry professionals from around the world. Teams design, build, and program AUVs to autonomously complete complex underwater missions, evaluating technical performance, system robustness, reliability, and integration.

Over the years, SAUVC has served as a launchpad for long-term impact. Participating teams have gone on to form startups, win major international engineering awards, and contribute to advanced research in marine and autonomous systems.

Since its inception, the competition has brought together students, researchers, educators, and industry professionals from around the world. Teams design, build, and program AUVs to autonomously complete complex underwater missions, evaluating technical performance, system robustness, reliability, and integration.

Over the years, SAUVC has served as a launchpad for long-term impact. Participating teams have gone on to form startups, win major international engineering awards, and contribute to advanced research in marine and autonomous systems.

AUVs in action underwater at SAUVC 2025

Importantly, SAUVC is open to a wide range of participants, from school teams beginning their journey in robotics to university teams advancing the state of the art. The competition values rigor, commitment, and creative problem-solving.

Some of the AUVs from SAUVC 2025

This year's edition of SAUVC promises to be the largest and most competitive to date.

• Over 120 teams registered from around the world.
• Nearly 90 teams submitted qualification videos.
• 52 teams have been selected to compete in person.
• For the first time this year, the innovation award will award the top four student teams with most innovations in their vehicle to present at the OCEANS poster session, thus giving them more exposure.

These numbers reflect the growing global interest in underwater robotics and the increasing importance of ocean-focused technology in the context of climate change, sustainability, and maritime operations. When SAUVC began, teams from just four countries: Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Russia participated. Over the years, as the competition's missions, organization, and technical rigor earned a strong reputation, participation expanded to 22 countries, including Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Canada, China and Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Macau, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and USA. This growth highlights the global recognition of SAUVC as a well-run, challenging, and highly respected platform for underwater robotics. SAUVC is also endorsed under the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, aligning the competition with global efforts to advance ocean knowledge and solutions.

This year, SAUVC will take place in Sanya alongside the OCEANS Conference. Co-locating the competition with a major international conference provides a convenient opportunity for participants to engage with the wider ocean engineering and research community. One of the key collaborations is that student teams who are awarded for having the most innovations on their vehicle, will present their poster at the OCEANS poster booth. While SAUVC have awarded teams the IEEE OES innovation award in the past years, this will be the first time this entails a participation in the flagship conference. You can view the innovation award winners for 2026 here: https://sauvc.org/#innovation-award.

One of the most distinctive aspects of SAUVC is that a competition of this scale is entirely run by volunteers.

The SAUVC competition sees a lot of intense moments amongst teams

Scientists, engineers, researchers, and industry professionals from academia and the private sector contribute their time and expertise to make SAUVC possible. SAUVC stands apart in the sense that it does not charge registration fees. Volunteers manage every aspect of the event, from planning and logistics such as venue coordination and equipment management, to mission design, technical evaluation, and rule enforcement. They also support on-site operations, spending long hours diving in rain or shine to monitor, recover, and judge competing vehicles.This volunteer-driven model fosters a collaborative environment where learning is prioritized and high technical standards are maintained. The rest of the costs of the event are recovered via sponsorships brought in by the volunteers, and we have had some long-standing sponsors who have supported us through the years, including IEEE OES, Kongsberg Discovery, Schmidt Ocean Institute, Sonardyne, Society for Underwater technology, BlueRobotics, and Sea and Land Technology.

SAUVC is not solely about competition; it is about tackling real engineering problems in a realistic operational context. Participants work with a mature but evolving technology and apply modern sensing, computation, and autonomy to underwater systems. The competition consistently demonstrates what motivated students and young engineers can achieve when supported by a strong technical community.

A snapshot from the winning team at one of the bonus rounds at SAUVC

Whether you are:

• A student seeking hands-on experience and international exposure
• An educator looking for meaningful, project-based learning opportunities
• A researcher or industry professional interested in engaging with emerging talent

SAUVC provides a focused environment where technical excellence and purpose come together. If the future of ocean technology matters to you, SAUVC offers a practical and meaningful way to engage with it.

If you are interested, you can learn more through the website (www.sauvc.org) and video channel:

See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC1XR5k-A8oQUrXvRDni_YQ