Abstract: Taking monocular CCD(charge coupled device) camera as a vision sensor,the navigation information of underwater pipelines can be acquired by vision-measuring method.On this basis,an underwater pipeline detection system for AUV(autonomous underwater vehicle) is constructed.According to the abstract degree of data structure,the data information transferred in this system can be divided into four hierarchies from low to high.Information in each hierarchy is described, and the underwater pipeline detection method for AUV is introduced in detail.In order to improve the accuracy and real-time performance of this system,the detection method based on dynamic window is applied.Finally,taking an AUV as carrier in indoor experimental pool,several underwater pipeline tracking experiments are carried out.The experiment results validate the feasibility and validity of this system.