Abstract
We present an approach for navigating in unknown environments while, simultaneously, gathering information for inspecting underwater structures using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). To accomplish this, we first use our pipeline for mapping and planning collision-free paths online, which endows an AUV with the capability to autonomously acquire optical data in close proximity. With that information, we then propose a reconstruction pipeline to create a photo-realistic textured 3D model of the inspected area. These 3D models are also of particular interest to other fields of study in marine sciences, since they can serve as base maps for environmental monitoring, thus allowing change detection of biological communities and their environment over time. Finally, we evaluate our approach using the Sparus II, a torpedo-shaped AUV, conducting inspection missions in a challenging, real-world and natural scenario.
Highlights
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary field that gathers together different natural sciences to study and determine the interactions of physical, chemical and biological components of the environment, as well as their effects on the organisms which inhabit it
The vehicle successfully conducted multiple start-to-goal missions, and gathered optical data that was used to build a 3D reconstruction of the surroundings
The results demonstrate the capabilities of our approach in natural real-world conditions, and validate our preliminary work conducted in a simulated environment [26]
Summary
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary field that gathers together different natural sciences to study and determine the interactions of physical, chemical and biological components of the environment, as well as their effects on the organisms which inhabit it. In order to correctly identify such changes, it is necessary to conduct long-term and high-frequency observations of the studied ecosystem. To this end, and especially during the last decades, robotic systems have started being used to systematically collect such environmental data [1]. Marine scientists were among the first to capitalize on the use of robotic vehicles for environmental monitoring. Oceanographers, for instance, started using unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to study deep marine environments and the seafloor [2]. The majority of such early applications were devoted to monitoring marine habitats, nowadays there are a significant and increasing number of robots that contribute to other environmental science domains
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