Towards large scale optical and acoustic sensor integration for Visualization
M. Johnson-Roberson · O. Pizarro · S. Willams
TL;DR
A method merges ship-based sonar with AUV sonar and stereo images into a single seafloor model spanning kilometers and fine detail.
BRIEF
Seafloor surveys produce data at very different scales. A ship-mounted multibeam sonar covers kilometers of terrain at coarse resolution, while an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) collects fine multibeam and stereo imagery close to the bottom. Keeping these separate makes it hard to see both the broad geology and the small-scale detail together. The authors describe a technique that merges these datasets, despite their differing resolutions, into one consistent model. The result captures high-resolution seafloor imagery alongside geological features that stretch across kilometers.
Abstract
We present a technique for the integration of data from a ship based multibeam along with multibeam and stereo images gathered from an AUV. The novelty of the proposed technique is the ability to integrate data-sets at different resolutions to produce one consistent model that captures not only high resolution images of the seafloor but sweeping geological features that span kilometers.