Autonomous operation for unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is the core competence for USV, and an important mean for unmanned and intelligent operation. USVs can be used for multi-mission, so autonomous operation for USV faces a lot of challenges, such as complex and changeable marine environmental factors, limited means of awareness in sea, low degree of automated operational decisions, difficult integration control of sailing and combat equipment. This study summarizes the development status of

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... utonomous operation for USVs from awareness, decision and control. It addresses the difficult issues and current main technologies of autonomous operation for USVs, and points out the deficiencies of the technologies. Finally, based on the analyses of development status, it addresses the development trend of autonomous operation for USV.