The high costs associated with the use of research oceanographic vessels and the maturity of the Unmanned Surface Cehicles (USV), now make it possible to develop systems for monitoring coastal areas based on networks of independent USVs.

Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) are widely employed for both military and civil applications (e.g. costal raids, mine search and rescue, research activities related to sea and littoral investigations, etc.). A number of prototypes and actual operating USV designs has been developed in the last decades, providing increasing energy and stability performances. Effectiveness and efficiency (e.g. environmentally-friendly performances, maximum operative range and endurance as well as detection performances) of such vehicles have been largely improved by the enhancement, in terms of reliability and compactness, of hybrid and/or fully electric propulsion systems, of real-time and remote accessible on-board monitoring systems and high range/bandwidth transmission data devices.