In earlier work, we have described the development of a vision system in support of the autonomous operation or operated-assisted missions of AUVS and ROVs near the ocean bottom [5]. The sea-floor images, acquired by a down-look camera installedon the submersible platform, are processed by the vision system in order to detect and estimate its motion in real time. This information is utilized to realize a number of capabilities, including automatic station keeping, navigation and trajectoryfollowing, and the construction of a composite (mosaic) image of the sea floor. This paper describes preliminary sea trial experiments to evaluate the performance of the vision system on a Phantom XTL ROV.
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