scholarly journals A PORTABLE OPTO-ACOUSTIC SURVEY SOLUTION FOR MAPPING OF UNDERWATER TARGETS

Author(s):  
B. Chemisky ◽  
E. Nocerino ◽  
F. Menna ◽  
M. M. Nawaf ◽  
P. Drap

Abstract. During underwater investigations, whatever the mission objective and the type of vehicle, obstacles detection and avoidance are essential tasks. They can either represent a target of interest that is the object of the mission or, on the contrary, represent obstacles that can hinder or affect the navigation of the vehicle. The underwater optical cameras that are usually fitted to underwater vehicles only offer a narrow field of view. The absorption of electromagnetic waves in the first few meters and the diffusion of light by the particles limit the use of these sensors to only a few meters range. The use of acoustic sensors, such as the forward looking sonar (FLS), is then necessary to enlarge the volume in which a target can be detected during the progression of the vehicle. Traditionally, sonars featured mechanical rotating parts, but lately bidirectional forward looking sonar, which directly produces a 2D image of the area, are becoming more and more common. Although these sonars can operate at frequency higher than 1MHz, their spatial resolution remains much lower if compared to current optical sensors and can be insufficient to identify and characterize a target. The combination of these two sensors in an operational scenario is essential to take advantage of each technology. In this paper we describe a low cost, multi-sensor, underwater survey solution for the identification, tracking, and 3D mapping of targets. After a description of the architecture of the opto-acoustics data acquisition and processing platform, we will focus on the calibration of the rigid transformation between the two sensors.

1997 ◽  
Vol 503 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. K. Diefenderfer ◽  
I. L. Al-Qadi ◽  
J. J. Yoho ◽  
S. M. Riad ◽  
A. Loulizi

ABSTRACTPortland cement concrete (PCC) structures deteriorate with age and need to be maintained or replaced. Early detection of deterioration in PCC (e.g., alkali-silica reaction, freeze/thaw damage, or chloride presence) can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs. However, it is often too late to perform low-cost preventative maintenance by the time deterioration becomes evident. By developing techniques that would enable civil engineers to evaluate PCC structures and detect deterioration at early stages (without causing further damage), optimization of life-cycle costs of the constructed facility and minimization of disturbance to the facility users can be achieved.Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods are potentially one of the most useful techniques ever developed for assessing constructed facilities. They are noninvasive and can be performed rapidly. Portland cement concrete can be nondestructively evaluated by electrically characterizing its complex dielectric constant. The real part of the dielectric constant depicts the velocity of electromagnetic waves in PCC. The imaginary part, termed the “loss factor,” describes the conductivity of PCC and the attenuation of electromagnetic waves.Dielectric properties of PCC have been investigated in a laboratory setting using a parallel plate capacitor operating in the frequency range of 0.1 to 40.1MIHz. This capacitor set-up consists of two horizontal-parallel plates with an adjustable separation for insertion of a dielectric specimen (PCC). While useful in research, this approach is not practical for field implementation. A new capacitor probe has been developed which consists of two plates, located within the same horizontal plane, for placement upon the specimen to be tested. Preliminary results show that this technique is feasible and results are promising; further testing and evaluation is currently underway.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 277
Author(s):  
Isaac Segovia Ramírez ◽  
Pedro José Bernalte Sánchez ◽  
Mayorkinos Papaelias ◽  
Fausto Pedro García Márquez

Submarine inspections and surveys require underwater vehicles to operate in deep waters efficiently, safely and reliably. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles employing advanced navigation and control systems present several advantages. Robust control algorithms and novel improvements in positioning and navigation are needed to optimize underwater operations. This paper proposes a new general formulation of this problem together with a basic approach for the management of deep underwater operations. This approach considers the field of view and the operational requirements as a fundamental input in the development of the trajectory in the autonomous guidance system. The constraints and involved variables are also defined, providing more accurate modelling compared with traditional formulations of the positioning system. Different case studies are presented based on commercial underwater cameras/sonars, analysing the influence of the main variables in the measurement process to obtain optimal resolution results. The application of this approach in autonomous underwater operations ensures suitable data acquisition processes according to the payload installed onboard.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 522-525
Author(s):  
Dorina Hasselbeck ◽  
Max B. Schäfer ◽  
Kent W. Stewart ◽  
Peter P. Pott

AbstractMicroscopy enables fast and effective diagnostics. However, in resource-limited regions microscopy is not accessible to everyone. Smartphone-based low-cost microscopes could be a powerful tool for diagnostic and educational purposes. In this paper, the imaging quality of a smartphone-based microscope with four different optical parameters is presented and a systematic overview of the resulting diagnostic applications is given. With the chosen configuration, aiming for a reasonable trade-off, an average resolution of 1.23 μm and a field of view of 1.12 mm2 was achieved. This enables a wide range of diagnostic applications such as the diagnosis of Malaria and other parasitic diseases.


2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 314-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. English ◽  
Kendall L. Carder

Abstract An unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) with hyperspectral optical sensors that measure downwelling irradiance and upwelling radiance was deployed over sandy bottoms, sea grass patches, and coral reefs near Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas, during the Coastal Benthic Optical Properties (CoBOP) program of 2000. These deployments occurred during both sunny and cloudy weather. If the rate of irradiance change due to cloud cover is slight, then the inclusion of a variable cloudy-irradiance factor will allow a reasonable estimation of water column absorption. Examination of data from a deployment in May 2000 under cloudy skies shows that the combination of hyperspectral light-field measurements, knowledge of the UUV's position in the water column, and a cloudy-irradiance factor permits consistent estimations of bottom reflectivity to be made from UUV measured reflectances. The spatial distribution of reflectance estimates obtained from a UUV may be useful for validation of airborne ocean color imagery.


Author(s):  
Hyun Choi ◽  
Wan-Chin Kim

Mechaless LiDAR technology, which does not have a mechanical drive part, has been actively studied in order to increase the reliability of the LiDAR device at low cost and drive environment in order to more actively apply LiDAR technology to autonomous driving. Mechaless LiDAR technology, which has been mainly studied recently, includes 3D Flash LiDAR technology, MEMS mirror utilization method, and OPA (Optical Phased Array). However, these methods have not been developed rapidly as a key technology for achieving autonomous driving due to low stability of driving environment or remarkably low measurable distance and FOV (field of view) compared with mechanical LiDAR. In this study, we investigated the improvement of FOV by using a flux-deflecting liquid lens and a fisheye lens that can achieve fine spatial resolution through continuous voltage regulation. Based on the initial design results, it was examined that the FOV can be secured to 80 ° or more by utilizing a relatively simple fisheye lens composed of only spherical lenses.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 00006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Badura ◽  
Piotr Batog ◽  
Anetta Drzeniecka-Osiadacz ◽  
Piotr Modzel

Monitoring systems are needed to obtain information about particulate matter (PM) concentrations and to make such information accessible to the public. Small, low-cost, optical sensors could be used to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of PM data. The paper presents results of collocated comparison of four low-cost PM sensors and TEOM analyser, conducted from 20-08-2017 to 24-12-2017 in Wrocław, Poland. Plantower PMS7003 and Nova Fitness SDS011 sensors proved to be the best in terms of precision and were linearly correlated with TEOM data. Alphasense OPC-N2 sensors exhibited only moderate precision and linearity. Winsen ZH03A sensors had low repeatability between units and only one copy demonstrated good operation possibilities. All tested sensors had a bias in relation to PM2.5 concentrations obtained from TEOM.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balletti ◽  
Ballarin

In recent decades, 3D acquisition by laser scanning or digital photogrammetry has become one of the standard methods of documenting cultural heritage, because it permits one to analyze the shape, geometry, and location of any artefact without necessarily coming into contact with it. The recording of three-dimensional metrical data of an asset allows one to preserve and monitor, but also to understand and explain the history and cultural heritage shared. In essence, it constitutes a digital archive of the state of an artefact, which can be used for various purposes, be remodeled, or kept safely stored. With the introduction of 3D printing, digital data can once again take on material form and become physical objects from the corresponding mathematical models in a relatively short time and often at low cost. This possibility has led to a different consideration of the concept of virtual data, no longer necessarily linked to simple visual fruition. The importance of creating high-resolution physical copies has been reassessed in light of different types of events that increasingly threaten the protection of cultural heritage. The aim of this research is to analyze the critical issues in the production process of the replicas, focusing on potential problems in data acquisition and processing and on the accuracy of the resulting 3D printing. The metric precision of the printed model with 3D technology are fundamental for everything concerning geomatics and must be related to the same characteristics of the digital model obtained through the survey analysis.


Author(s):  
Monica Subashini M ◽  
Sreethul Das ◽  
Soumil Heble ◽  
Utkarsh Raj ◽  
R Karthik

<p>About 10% of the world’s workforce is directly dependent on agriculture for income and about 99% of food consumed by humans comes from farming. Agriculture is highly climate dependent and with global warming and rapidly changing weather it has become necessary to closely monitor the environment of growing crops for maximizing output as well as increasing food security while minimizing resource usage. In this study, we developed a low cost system which will monitor the temperature, humidity, light intensity and soil moisture of crops and send it to an online server for storage and analysis, based on this data the system can control actuators to control the growth parameters. The three tier system architecture consists of sensors and actuators on the lower level followed by an 8-bit AVR microcontroller which is used for data acquisition and processing topped by an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module which communicates with the internet server. The system uses relay to control actuators such as pumps to irrigate the fields; online weather data is used to optimize the irrigation cycles. The prototyped system was subject to several tests, the experimental results express the systems reliability and accuracy which accentuate its feasibility in real-world applications.</p>


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