RoboSub is a competition whose goal is to advance the development of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) by challenging a new generation of engineers to perform realistic missions in an underwater environment. It was launched in 1997 and is co-sponsored by the RoboNation (formerly the AUVSI Foundation) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The event also serves to foster ties between young engineers and the organizations developing AUV technologies. The competition is open to high school and college teams from around the world. Since about 2002, it has been held each summer at the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific's TRANSDEC Anechoic pool in San Diego, California. In 2022, the competition took place at the University of Maryland, College Park.