Underwater imaging

Hanu Singh

My students and I are interested in the design, and use of underwater vehicles for high-resolution imaging associated with a variety of biological, geological and archaeological applications underwater. Our group works extensively with assets including nuclear submaries (the NR-1), towed vehicles (Argo, the DSL120, the Video Plankton Recorder), remotely operated vehicles (Jason), manned submersibles (Alvin) and autonomous underwater vehicles (ABE, Seabed, Apogee).

The over-riding interest in our group is in the area of high resolution underwater imaging (optical camera, sidescan and bathymetry) with an emphasis in pushing the limits in these areas in the context of the real system dynamics, navigation and control constraints that exist for real oceanographic mapping applications.

Specific topics that are being actively pursued include:

• Mosaicking and 3D Image Reconstruction (SFM) for underwater sites
• Visually based navigation for AUVs
• Imaging for fine-scale manipulation in highly turbid environments
• The use of multiple AUVs for scientific applications
• Pattern recognition and classification of plankton for ecological studies

Figure 1: Photomosaic: a high resolution microbathymetric map and the result of fusing these two modalities for a 4th century AD Roman shipwreck imaged in-situ in 800m of water in the Skerki Bank region on the Mediterranean using the Jason ROV. (click for larger image)

Figure 2: Seabed AUV showing the various sensor footprints. (click for larger image)

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