Visual Inspection of Underwater Structures By Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Based On Positioning Using Artificial Objects Placed On Them

In this paper, a method for autonomous visual inspection of intricate underwater structures by AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) is proposed. AUVs can perform the inspection task by dead reckoning navigation and error correction by using a sacrificial anode as a navigational aid. The parallel lighting method is proposed to identify an inspection target that may be covered with marine organisms while using a limited amount of computing power. Simulations and field experiments have been carried out to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed technique.