Autonomous Visual 3D Mapping of the Ocean Floor by Underwater Robots Equipped with a Single Photo Camera
摘要
Because of the optical properties of water, satellites and planes can only look into the top few meters of the ocean, hiding virtually all of the ocean floor from space- or airborne visual sensors. While local photos of the seafloor can be obtained by divers in shallow water, or by towed underwater cameras or remotely operated vehicles, these approaches are cost-intensive and do not scale and the majority of the Earth’s seafloor remains unexplored. Autonomous robots, equipped with underwater cameras, are an option for cost-efficient 3D mapping of hectares of seafloor per day at millimeter resolution that has the potential to be parallelized easily. In this chapter, we provide an in-depth explanation of the visual 3D seafloor mapping approach developed at GEOMAR, starting from system conception and design, calibration, mission planning, and operation to processing and final maps.