Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have become an indispensable tool to study the oceans.  They allow for the prolonged presence of scientific instruments to collect samples for several weeks or months at a time for a fraction of the cost of research vessels.  One such AUV is the Slocum Electric Glider.  Although AUVs, such as the Slocum Glider, have revolutionized the field of oceanography, many are difficult to program and thus limit their overall utility.

A new energy aware domain specific programming framework for AUVs with a focus on the Slocum Glider will be described.  The framework enables scientist to easily create missions that use domain specific features to make trade-offs, such as sacrificing the quality at which the environment is sampled for a gain in vehicle endurance.  Novel methods used in the framework make the vehicle a more effective scientific instrument. New missions can be tested in simulation, but more importantly, can be compiled directly for use on the target platform. To evaluate the framework, simulations and field trials off the coast of New Jersey were performed to showcase the practicality of the system.