Lagrangian floats as sea floor imaging platforms

There is a persistent need for high resolution photographic images of the sea floor and associated biota for marine habitat classification and fisheries stock assessment. This paper presents a novel low cost Lagrangian imaging platform that offers high quality images with reduced operational demands in comparison to existing methodologies such as diver surveys, drop cameras, ship towed systems and dedicated remote or autonomous underwater vehicles. The platform consists of a recently developed bottom following Lagrangian float fit with down looking stereo cameras and strobe lighting. The float can use active ballasting to perform constant altitude photographic drift surveys in coastal waters over varying bathymetry. Images from the float can be used to create large photomosaics, stereographic bathymetry estimates and image-derived current measurements. Test data are presented to demonstrate the operation of the Lagrangian float and summarize the data products.

[1]  G LoweDavid,et al.  Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints , 2004 .

[2]  Mark A. Moline,et al.  Introduction to the Limnology and Oceanography Special Issue on Autonomous and Lagrangian Platforms and Sensors (ALPS) , 2008 .

[3]  D. Mirza,et al.  AUE: An Autonomous Float for Monitoring the Upper Water Column , 2007, OCEANS 2007 - Europe.

[4]  Jules S. Jaffe,et al.  Computer modeling and the design of optimal underwater imaging systems , 1990 .

[5]  S.S. da Costa Botelho,et al.  Visual odometry and mapping for Underwater Autonomous Vehicles , 2009, 2009 6th Latin American Robotics Symposium (LARS 2009).

[6]  L. Whitcomb,et al.  A SURVEY OF UNDERWATER VEHICLE NAVIGATION : RECENT ADVANCES AND NEW CHALLENGES , 2006 .

[7]  Chris Roman,et al.  Development of a new Lagrangian float for studying coastal marine ecosystems , 2009, OCEANS 2009-EUROPE.

[8]  C. Roman,et al.  Imaging Coral I: Imaging Coral Habitats with the SeaBED AUV , 2004 .

[9]  H. Singh,et al.  Development of a Towed Survey System for Deployment by the Fishing Industry , 2006, OCEANS 2006.

[10]  J. Reynolds,et al.  Marine Habitat Mapping Technology for Alaska , 2008 .

[11]  J. Collie,et al.  Photographic evaluation of the impacts of bottom fishing on benthic epifauna , 2000 .

[12]  Hanumant Singh,et al.  Towards High-resolution Imaging from Underwater Vehicles , 2007, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[13]  Hanafiah Yussof.  Robot Localization and Map Building , 2010 .

[14]  Hanumant Singh,et al.  Relative Pose Estimation for Instrumented, Calibrated Imaging Platforms , 2003, DICTA.

[15]  Emily Eelkema,et al.  Mars Exploration Rovers , 2004 .

[16]  James R. Bergen,et al.  Visual odometry for ground vehicle applications , 2006, J. Field Robotics.

[17]  Daniel L. Rudnick,et al.  Observing the Ocean with Autonomous and Lagrangian Platforms and Sensors (ALPS): the Role of ALPS in Sustained Ocean Observing Systems , 2003 .

[18]  H. Singh,et al.  Computer-Assisted Analysis of Near-Bottom Photos for Benthic Habitat Studies , 2006, OCEANS 2006.

[19]  Brian J. Rothschild,et al.  The Future of Fisheries Science in North America , 2009 .

[20]  V. O'Connell,et al.  Twenty Years of Research on Demersal Communities Using the Delta Submersible in the Northeast Pacific , 2008 .

[21]  Larry H. Matthies,et al.  Two years of Visual Odometry on the Mars Exploration Rovers , 2007, J. Field Robotics.

[22]  G. Eberli,et al.  Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) mapping reveals coral mound distribution, morphology, and oceanography in deep water of the Straits of Florida , 2006 .

[23]  D. Scharstein,et al.  A Taxonomy and Evaluation of Dense Two-Frame Stereo Correspondence Algorithms , 2001, Proceedings IEEE Workshop on Stereo and Multi-Baseline Vision (SMBV 2001).

[24]  Hanumant Singh,et al.  Using the Seabed AUV to Assess Populations of Groundfish in Untrawlable Areas , 2009 .

[25]  Chau-Chang Wang,et al.  Evaluation of Laser Scanning and Stereo Photography Roughness Measurement Systems Using a Realistic Model Seabed Surface , 2009, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering.

[26]  Stefan B. Williams,et al.  Autonomous underwater vehicle–assisted surveying of drowned reefs on the shelf edge of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia , 2010, J. Field Robotics.

[27]  R. H. Byrne,et al.  Design and initial results of a bottom stationing ocean profiler , 2002, OCEANS '02 MTS/IEEE.

[28]  Bernhard P. Wrobel,et al.  Multiple View Geometry in Computer Vision , 2001 .

[29]  Stefan B. Williams,et al.  Generation and visualization of large‐scale three‐dimensional reconstructions from underwater robotic surveys , 2010, J. Field Robotics.

[30]  Stefan B. Williams,et al.  Toward adaptive benthic habitat mapping using gaussian process classification , 2010, J. Field Robotics.