## 1 Introduction  
In the past couple of decades, we have seen a tremendous increase in the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in a wide variety of applications ranging from sub-sea explorations to ocean research and development [1]. Some notable areas where AUVs are widely used [2] involve mapping, inspections, surveys, and military roles. Damages from incidents such as the Deepwater Horizon tragedy [3] could have considerably reduced if there was a possibility of using an AUV for inspecting the blowout preventer, riser, and surrounding seabed of the oil rig. Necessary precautions and safety measures could have been taken well in advance to reduce the impact of such mishaps. Now, AUVs have evolved to accomplish complex and highly demanding tasks such as search and rescue [4], underwater manipulation [5], homing, docking [6], etc. Apart from this, these underwater vehicles are required to autonomously carry out mission tasks that includes path following, terrain following, obstacle avoidance, and such. A growing trend [7] has been observed with a new class of vehicles named field resident AUV systems that carry out these tasks. Complementing the Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) in the midterm [8, 9], resident AUVs now hold a position as a completely unique class of underwater robotic systems merging the advances in technology and demand for new applications. The various components of such systems [10] additionally include a home base for docking when not performing the mission, and various power and communication facilities. In [11],the authors conducted a workshop that studied various applications of resident AUVs, focusing more on mid-water and seafloor observations. In [12], the authors discuss some capabilities of such systems by studying the Marlin Mk3 AUV by Lockheed Martin and Saab Seaeye's Sabertooth AUV. The work in [13] is about the deployment of resident AUV Systems by Chevron for pipeline and facility inspection operations. FlatFish [14] is used to perform an on-demand close visual inspection on sub-sea structures within an oil and gas field. The work in [15] discusses the monitoring of underwater infrastructure using a resident AUV Tri-TON 2. Saipem has developed a resident AUV named Hydrone-R1 capable of carrying out light construction works and advanced inspections on sub-sea assets. In [16], the authors conduct a review of resident AUV systems, along with their application areas, capabilities, and challenges. Such class of AUVs are thus needed by the current industry, favoring a system that is capable of carrying out all tasks and operations autonomously, thus motivating the problem of autonomous mission capability, homing, and docking. Another increasing trend sees AUVs deployed from surface vessel or submarines, and requires them to home back autonomously. Retrieval of REMUS 100 AUV from an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) using a taut tether line is presented in [17], while docking of AUVs to a submarine is presented in [18]. The work in [19] discusses the launch, deployment, and recovery of AUVs from submarines via conventional torpedo tubes and via a hangar mounted to the submarine body. In [20], the authors present the recovery of AUVs from submarines by operating a taught wire for retrieval. Thus, autonomous deployment, homing, and docking are desirable features for AUVs. For long-term deployments, it is required to have these capabilities carried out without any intervention from any human operators. Having these autonomous capabilities could save time, and reduce human error and fatigue, even for systems such as ROVs or other tethered underwater or surface vehicles. It is thus interesting to study and find solutions in the autonomous capabilities of the vehicle that would encompass all behaviors that are needed right from dispatch till recovery, and also with a long-term vision of intervention capabilities [21,22].