Abstract: It's a long history for human being to explore,understand and use oceans.With the help of a variety of unmanned marine vehicles or related equipments,these activities have reached an unprecedented peak stage in the past 50 years,and the future demands from social progress and scientific and technological developments will drive these activities to a new height. This paper reviews the development history of unmanned marine vehicles at home and abroad,analyzes the status of various unmanned marine vehicles,and tries to prospect their future developments.