Autonomous operation of vision-based manipulator is of great significance in many fields such as industrial production,aerospace and deep-sea exploration.Here we summarize the autonomous operation technology of vision-based manipulator in light of their control schemes:geometric driven control and data driven control.The control principles as well as related work are introduced,then strengths of and challenges faced by each category are analyzed.Finally,key issues and challenges for autonomous control of vision-based manipulator in fields of ocean development and exploration are summarized.