Abstract:In order to study global frontiers, national R&D layout and future research directions of underwater vehicles, citation networks and patent maps combing with expert opinions were used to recognize frontiers of basic research and technology development for underwater vehicles by defining indicators such as highly cited papers, highly frequency keywords, highly cited new keywords, important patents and highly frequency concepts in the clusters based on SCI papers and patents data; at the mean time, the total number of citations of papers and patent citations were used separately to compare the research and development influence among different countries. The research results show that R&D studies of underwater vehicles are very active, studies on autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) have always maintained a high research interest with early start studies, large number of papers, highest rate of annual published papers; application studies on underwater vehicles have a high number of citations, a large number of participating universities and institutions, and always were published in high level journals; AUV deployment and recovery, general technology, payload, and the application of remotely operated vehicles in the oil and gas industry have the greatest influence in technology development of underwater vehicles;China has taken an active part in underwater vehicle studies and has abundant output, but it is still behind the leading countries in related theoretical researches and product market competitiveness.