A Vision Based Target Detection System for Docking of an A utonomous Underwater Vehicle

This paper describes the development and preliminary experimental evaluation of a visionbased docking system to allow an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to identify and attach itself to a set of uniquely identifiable targets. These targets, docking poles, are detected using Haar rectangular features and rotation of integral images. A non-holonomic controller allows the Starbug AUV to orient itself with respect to the target whilst maintaining visual contact during the manoeuvre. Experimental results show the proposed vision system is capable of robustly identifying a pair of docking poles simultaneously in a variety of orientations and lighting conditions. Experiments in an outdoor pool show that this vision system enables the AUV to dock autonomously from a distance of up to 4m with relatively low visibility.

[1]  Peter I. Corke,et al.  A Hybrid AUV Design for Shallow Water Reef Navigation , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[2]  K. Hamilton,et al.  Autonomous docking for Intervention-AUVs using sonar and video-based real-time 3D pose estimation , 2003, Oceans 2003. Celebrating the Past ... Teaming Toward the Future (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37492).

[3]  M. Bowen,et al.  Intelligent docking for an autonomous ocean sampling network , 1997, Oceans '97. MTS/IEEE Conference Proceedings.

[4]  Hayato Kondo,et al.  Navigation of autonomous underwater vehicles based on artificial underwater landmarks , 2001, MTS/IEEE Oceans 2001. An Ocean Odyssey. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.01CH37295).

[5]  Sea-Moon Kim,et al.  Visual servoing for underwater docking of an autonomous underwater vehicle with one camera , 2003, Oceans 2003. Celebrating the Past ... Teaming Toward the Future (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37492).

[6]  M. D. Feezor,et al.  Autonomous underwater vehicle homing/docking via electromagnetic guidance , 1997, Oceans '97. MTS/IEEE Conference Proceedings.

[7]  Matthew Dunbabin,et al.  Vision-based docking using an autonomous surface vehicle , 2007, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[8]  R. Stokey,et al.  A docking system for REMUS, an autonomous underwater vehicle , 1997, Oceans '97. MTS/IEEE Conference Proceedings.

[9]  Paul A. Viola,et al.  Rapid object detection using a boosted cascade of simple features , 2001, Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. CVPR 2001.

[10]  Peter I. Corke,et al.  Data muling over underwater wireless sensor networks using an autonomous underwater vehicle , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[11]  S. Cowen,et al.  Underwater docking of autonomous undersea vehicles using optical terminal guidance , 1997, Oceans '97. MTS/IEEE Conference Proceedings.

[12]  H. H. Wang,et al.  Experiments in automatic retrieval of underwater objects with an AUV , 1995, 'Challenges of Our Changing Global Environment'. Conference Proceedings. OCEANS '95 MTS/IEEE.

[13]  S. Lerner,et al.  An intelligent dock for an autonomous ocean sampling network , 1998, IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society. OCEANS'98. Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.98CH36259).

[14]  Amaury Nègre,et al.  Robust vision-based underwater homing using self-similar landmarks , 2008, J. Field Robotics.

[15]  B.W. Hobson,et al.  Docking Control System for a 54-cm-Diameter (21-in) AUV , 2008, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering.