With precious historical value, underwater cultural relics play an important role in safeguarding national maritime rights and interests. As the main tool for detecting underwater cultural relics, underwater archaeological vehicle is widely applied in underwater archaeological work. Based on the specifics of underwater archaeological work, typical operation process and existing work of underwater archaeology, the main characteristics of underwater archaeology work are summarized. Starting from general-purpose underwater robot, the main features of remotely operated underwater vehicle, manned submersibles and autonomous underwater vehicle and their typical applications in underwater archaeology are categorized, and the specifics of special robots for underwater archaeology in China and other countries are introduced in detail. Finally, the development trend of underwater archaeology vehicles is analysed from aspects such as operation mode, operation function and intelligence level, providing reference for the subsequent development of underwater archaeology vehicles.

underwater archaeology  /  remotely operated underwater vehicle  /  human occupied vehicle  /  autonomous underwater vehicle