In this paper, an intelligent navigation system foran unmanned underwater vehicle powered by renewableenergy and designed for shadow water inspection inmissions of a long duration is proposed. The system iscomposed of an underwater vehicle, which tows a surfacevehicle. The surface vehicle is a small boat withphotovoltaic panels, a methanol fuel cell andcommunication equipment, which provides energy andcommunication to the underwater vehicle. The underwatervehicle has sensors to monitor the underwaterenvironment such as sidescan sonar and a video camera ina flexible configuration and sensors to measure thephysical and chemical parameters of water quality onpredefined paths for long distances. The underwatervehicle implements a biologically inspired neuralarchitecture for autonomous intelligent navigation.Navigation is carried out by integrating a kinematicadaptive neuro‐controller for trajectory tracking and anobstacle avoidance adaptive neuro‐ controller. Theautonomous underwater vehicle is capable of operatingduring long periods of observation and monitoring. Thisautonomous vehicle is a good tool for observing large areasof sea, since it operates for long periods of time due to thecontribution of renewable energy. It correlates all sensordata for time and geodetic position. This vehicle has beenused for monitoring the Mar Menor lagoon.
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