Computer Vision in Vehicle Technology

Chapter 4Exploring the Seafloor with Underwater Robots

Rafael Garcia¹, Nuno Gracias¹, Tudor Nicosevici¹, Ricard Prados¹, Natalia Hurtos¹, Ricard Campos¹, Javier Escartin², Armagan Elibol³, Ramon Hegedus⁴ and Laszlo Neumann¹

¹Computer Vision and Robotics Institute, University of Girona, Girona, Spain

²Institute of Physics of Paris Globe, The National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris, France

³Department of Mathematical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

⁴Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbruecken, Germany

4.1 Introduction

The ocean covers nearly 75% of our planet. Surprisingly, humans have explored a very small fraction of this unbelievably vast extent of the globe. The main reason for this is that the deep sea is a hostile environment, with absence of light and extreme pressures, making the ocean a dangerous place for human beings. Therefore, deep sea exploration, beyond the capacity of human divers, requires the use of underwater vehicles. Initially, such vehicles were operated by a pilot while carrying one or more scientists. Since all these manned submersibles have hovering capabilities, a skilled pilot would be able to survey the seafloor at very low altitude (i.e., distance from the vehicle to the seafloor) while studying target areas. Having the pilot on the survey loop allows real-time re-planning of the survey depending on the interests of the onboard scientists. However, human-operated vehicles have the limitation of restricted diving ...