The book on CD-ROM, Operational Effectiveness of Unmanned Underwater Systems (OEUUS), was published in 1998 by the MTS ROV Committee and has been on sale by MTS for the last 20 years. Recently, the ROV Committee chair, Chuck Richards, decided to make it available for free on line due to the historical perspective it presents on the technology. The OEUSS was produced to provide guidance and information to those who use, plan to use, or are just interested in unmanned underwater systems and their associated technology. The publication’s 600 pages provide a discussion of the systems and what can be expected of them. In essence, it explains what they are, what they can and cannot do, where they are operating and how successful they are, what you should be aware of and what can be expected in the future. It provides an understanding of the “operational effectiveness of unmanned underwater systems.”

The OEUUS was written, edited and produced by Robert Wernli and Jack Jaeger. Both are MTS Fellows. Robert Wernli, as chair of the ROV Committee in the 1980’s, began the ROV conference (now the Underwater Intervention conference) in 1983 and chaired it thru the 1992 conference. The ROV conference was the first MTS conference to be held outside the U.S. and was taken to Scotland, Norway and Canada. The success of the ROV conferences essentially built the momentum and international perspective for the ROV committee to decide to produce the OEUUS, and because of the popularity of the CD-ROM technology at that time, Drew Michel, then ROV committee chair, decided to publish it in digital vice paper form.

Following the publication of the OEUUS, Robert Wernli continued to write about ROV technology and has published The ROV Manual, via Elsevier, which now has the 2nd edition available. He has also published some award-winning underwater techno-thriller novels: www.wernlibooks.com

The OEUUS can be downloaded from the ROV.org website under educational resources: https://rov.org/education-resources/.