Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Advances In High Resolution Imaging From Underwater Vehicles, Hanumant Singh, Christopher Roman, Oscar Pizarro, Ryan Eustice

Christopher N. Roman

Large area mapping at high resolution underwater continues to be constrained by the mismatch between available navigation as compared to sensor accuracy. In this paper we present advances that exploit consistency and redundancy within local sensor measurements to build high resolution optical and acoustic maps that are a consistent representation of the environment.

We present our work in the context of real world data acquired using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) working in diverse applications including shallow water coral reef surveys with the Seabed AUV, a forensic survey of the RMS Titanic in the North Atlantic …

Micro-Bathymetric Mapping Using Acoustic Range Images, Christopher Roman, Hanumant Singh

Christopher N. Roman

This work focuses on the creation of high resolution micro-bathymetric maps using a high frequency pencil beam sonar. These maps typically cover areas of 10's to 100's of square meters. Data is collected using a sonar mounted to an underwater vehicle that can be positioned at discrete locations on the sea floor or flown in a survey pattern above the bottom. Specifically, we are focused on improving the accuracy of these terrain maps by merging sonar pings taken from multiple vantage points over the same location. This requires the adaption of data registration techniques to handle errors related to the …

Asymptotic Accuracy Of Geoacoustic Inversions, Michele Zanolin, Ian Ingram, Aaron Thode, Nicholas C. Makris

Michele Zanolin

How A Mirage Is Formed, Christopher Roman

Christopher N. Roman

Article that appeared in Sail magazine (ISSN: 0036-2700).

Wind Shear, Christopher Roman

Christopher N. Roman

Article that appeared in Sail magazine (ISSN: 0036-2700).

What Makes The Trades?, Christopher Roman

Christopher N. Roman

Article that appeared in Sail magazine (ISSN: 0036-2700).

Underwater Terrain Reconstruction Using Sonar Data Taken From Multiple Vantage Points, Christopher Roman

Christopher N. Roman

No abstract provided.

Optical And Acoustic Habitat Characterization With The Seabed Auv, Hanumant Singh, Ryan Eustice, Oscar Pizarro, Christopher Roman

Christopher N. Roman

The Seabed AUV is an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) built to serve as a readily available and operationally simple tool for high resolution imaging. It is a hover-capable vehicle that performs optical sensing with a 12 bit 1280/spl times/1024 CCD camera and acoustic high resolution mapping using an MST 300 kHz sidescan and a 675 kHz pencil beam bathymetric sonar. The AUV has been designed for operations from small vessels with minimal support equipment. It has an operational depth of 2000 meters and at 1 m/s can run for up to 10 hours. In this paper we report on the …

Wind Gusts, Christopher Roman

Christopher N. Roman

Article that appeared in Sail magazine (ISSN: 0036-2700).

Waves And Current, Christopher Roman

Christopher N. Roman

Article that appeared in Sail magazine (ISSN: 0036-2700).

The Mysterious Marine Layer, Christopher Roman

Christopher N. Roman

Article that appeared in Sail magazine (ISSN: 0036-2700).

The Seabed Auv — A Platform For High Resolution Imaging, Hanumant Singh, Ryan Eustice, Christopher Roman, Oscar Pizarro

Christopher N. Roman

No abstract provided.

Multiscalar, Multisensor Search And Survey With Hovering Auvs, Christopher Roman, Hanumant Singh

Christopher N. Roman

No abstract provided.

Uwit: Underwater Image Toolbox And Mosaicking In Matlab, R. Eustice, O. Pizarro, C. Roman, H. Singh

Christopher N. Roman

No abstract provided.

A Short Summary Of Seabed And Some Data Highlights, H. Singh, R. Eustice, C. Roman, O. Pizarro, N. Mcphee

Christopher N. Roman

No abstract provided.

Estimation Of Error In Large Area Underwater Photomosaics Using Vehicle Navigation Data, C. Roman, H. Singh

Christopher N. Roman

Creating geometrically accurate photomosaics of underwater sites using images collected from an AUV or ROV is a difficult task due to dimensional errors which grow as a function of 3D image distortion and the mosaicking process. Although photomosiacs are accurate locally their utility for accurately representing a large survey area is jeopardized by this error growth. Evaluating the error in a mosaic is the first step in creating globally accurate photomosaics of an unstructured environment with bounded error. Using vehicle navigation data and sensor offsets it is possible to estimate the error present in large area photomosaics independent of the …

A New Autonomous Underwater Vehicle For Imaging Research, C. Roman, O. Pizarro, R. Eustice, H. Singh

Christopher N. Roman

Currently, unmanned underwater vehicles either tend to be cumbersome and complex to run, or operationally simple, but not quite suitable platforms for deep water imaging. This paper presents an alternative design in the form of a new low cost and easier to use autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for imaging research. The objective of the vehicle is to serve as a readily available and operationally simple tool that allows rapid testing of imaging algorithms in areas such as photomosaicking, 3D image reconstruction from a single camera, image based navigation, and multi-sensor fusion of bathymetry and optical data. These are all current …

Advances In Fusion Of High Resolution Underwater Optical And Acoustic Data, H. Singh, C. Roman, L. Whitcomb, D. Yoerger

Christopher N. Roman

We report efforts to merge data from the complementary modalities of optical and acoustic sensing for obtaining more accurate representations of the seafloor. We show that the principal obstacles to merging the acoustic and optical imaging modalities are the distortions inherent to each modality. The construction of geometrically accurate photomosaics is dominated by incremental errors arising as individual images are scaled and warped to form the photomosaic. For microbathymetric mapping, principal errors arise from sensor position and orientation calibration parameters that affect our ability to construct maps from sonar data that are commensurate with sensor and navigation resolution. We show …