• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2016

This paper presents an underwater structure 3D reconstruction method using a 2D multibeam imaging sonar. Compared with other underwater environmental recognition sensors, the 2D multibeam imaging sonar offers high resolution images in water with a high turbidity level by showing the reflection intensity data in real-time. With such advantages, almost all underwater applications, including ROVs, have applied this 2D multibeam imaging sonar. However, the elevation data are missing in sonar images, which causes difficulties with correctly understanding the underwater topography. To solve this problem, this paper concentrates on the physical relationship between the sonar image and the scene topography to find the elevation information. First, the modeling of the sonar reflection intensity data is studied using the distances and angles of the sonar beams and underwater objects. Second, the elevation data are determined based on parameters like the reflection intensity and shadow length. Then, the elevation information is applied to the 3D underwater reconstruction. This paper evaluates the presented real-time 3D reconstruction method using real underwater environments. Experimental results are shown to appraise the performance of the method. Additionally, with the utilization of ROVs, the contour and texture image mapping results from the obtained 3D reconstruction results are presented as applications.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.51-59
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• 2016

In this paper we present (1) analysis of imaging sonar measurement for two-view relative pose estimation of an autonomous vehicle and (2) bundle adjustment and 3D reconstruction method using imaging sonar. Sonar has been a popular sensor for underwater application due to its robustness to water turbidity and visibility in water medium. While vision based motion estimation has been applied to many ground vehicles for motion estimation and 3D reconstruction, imaging sonar addresses challenges in relative sensor frame motion. We focus on the fact that the sonar measurement inherently poses ambiguity in its measurement. This paper illustrates the source of the ambiguity in sonar measurements and summarizes assumptions for sonar based robot navigation. For validation, we synthetically generated underwater seafloor with varying complexity to analyze the error in the motion estimation.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.214-220
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• 2016

Imaging sonars such as side-scanning sonar or forward-looking sonar are becoming fundamental sensors in the underwater robotics field. However, using sonar images for underwater perception presents many challenges. Sonar images are usually low resolution with inherent speckled noise. To overcome the limited sensor information for underwater perception, we investigated preprocessing methods for sonar images and feature detection methods for a nonlinear scale space. In this paper, we focus on a comparative analysis of (1) preprocessing for sonar images and (2) the feature detection performance in relation to the scale space composition.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.218-225
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• 2011

Dual frequency identification sonar (DIDSON) is an imaging sonar that has been used for numerous fisheries investigations in a diverse range of freshwater and marine environments. The main purpose of DIDSON is fish counting, fish sizing, and fish behavioral studies. DIDSON records video-quality data, so processing power for handling the vast amount of data with high speed is a priority. Therefore, a semiautomated analysis of DIDSON data for fish counting, sizing, and fish behavior in Echoview (fisheries acoustic data analysis software) was accomplished using testing data collected on the Rakaia River, New Zealand. Using this data, the methods and algorithms for background noise subtraction, image smoothing, target (fish) detection, and conversion to single targets were precisely illustrated. Verification by visualization identified the resulting targets. As a result, not only fish counts but also fish sizing information such as length, thickness, perimeter, compactness, and orientation were obtained. The alpha-beta fish tracking algorithm was employed to extract the speed, change in depth, and the distributed depth relating to fish behavior. Tail-beat pattern was depicted using the maximum intensity of all beams. This methodology can be used as a template and applied to data from BlueView two-dimensional imaging sonar.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.273-281
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• 2013

The movement patterns of fish aggregations swimming freely near artificial reefs on August 24, 2006, at Suyeong Man, Busan, Korea, were acoustically investigated and analyzed. Acoustic surveys were conducted using a 70kHz split-beam echo sounder, 330 kHz side-scan sonar and a 310 kHz imaging sonar. Algorithms for tracking the movement of fish aggregations swimming in response to artificial reefs were developed. The travel direction and the swimming speed for two aggregations of fish were estimated from the trajectory orientations of echo responses recorded by the imaging sonar.The first group was floating just above the reef structure, while remaining in the midwater column, and the second group was swimming through and around artificial reefs near the seabed. The mean swimming speed was estimated to be 0.40 m/s for the midwater fish aggregation and 0.17 m/s for the bottom aggregation close to artificial reefs. These results suggest that the swimming behavior of fish aggregations passing close to artificial reefs near the seabed displayed a slower moving pattern than fish floating just above the reef structure in the midwater column.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.182-189
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• 2014

This paper proposed a framework of recognition and tracking for underwater objects using sonar images as an alternative of underwater optical camera which has the limitation of usage due to turbidity. In Part 1, a design and recognition method for 2D artificial landmark was proposed considering the practical performance of current imaging sonars. In particular, its materials are selected in order to maximize detectability based on characteristics of imaging sonar and ultrasonic waves. It has a simple and omni-directional shape which allows an easy modeling of object, and it includes region based features as identifications. Also, we proposed a real-time recognition algorithm including edge detector, Hough circle transforms, and shape matrix based recognition algorithm. The proposed methods are verified by basin tests using DIDSON.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.232-241
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• 2014

This paper proposes an underwater localization algorithm using probabilistic object recognition. It is organized as follows; 1) recognizing artificial objects using imaging sonar, and 2) localizing the recognized objects and the vehicle using EKF(Extended Kalman Filter) based SLAM. For this purpose, we develop artificial landmarks to be recognized even under the unstable sonar images induced by noise. Moreover, a probabilistic recognition framework is proposed. In this way, the distance and bearing of the recognized artificial landmarks are acquired to perform the localization of the underwater vehicle. Using the recognized objects, EKF-based SLAM is carried out and results in a path of the underwater vehicle and the location of landmarks. The proposed localization algorithm is verified by experiments in a basin.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.116-122
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• 2016

This paper proposes a practical object shape reconstruction method using an underwater imaging sonar. In order to reconstruct the object shape, three methods are utilized. Firstly, the vertical field of view of imaging sonar is modified to narrow angle to reduce an uncertainty of estimated 3D position. The wide vertical field of view makes the incorrect estimation result about the 3D position of the underwater object. Secondly, simple noise filtering and range detection methods are designed to extract a distance from the sonar image. Lastly, a low pass filter is adopted to estimate a probability of voxel occupancy. To demonstrate the proposed methods, object shape reconstruction for three sample objects was performed in a basin and results are explained.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.435-449
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• 2020

This paper proposes a method to estimate the underwater target object's yaw angle using a sonar image. A simulator modeling imaging mechanism of a sonar sensor and a generative adversarial network for style transfer generates realistic template images of the target object by predicting shapes according to the viewing angles. Then, the target object's yaw angle can be estimated by comparing the template images and a shape taken in real sonar images. We verified the proposed method by conducting water tank experiments. The proposed method was also applied to AUV in field experiments. The proposed method, which provides bearing information between underwater objects and the sonar sensor, can be applied to algorithms such as underwater localization or multi-view-based underwater object recognition.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1984.12a
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• pp.96-99
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• 1984

In this study, the underwater acoustic images were obtained by ultrasonicwave. The experiment was performed in the anechoic watertank, using a passive sonar array for one and two sound source respectively by X-Y scanning technique. The receiving array was consist of 8 disc type transducers with 1.5cm diameter at 25KHz resonance frequency. The scanned data were processed by the FORTRAN IV algorithm for the reconstruction of image, and the image had some noise due to the surface reflected waves. As the result, it was found that the acoustic imaging by electrical deflection and dynamic focusing technique is applicable to SONAR with the suppression of surface reflected wave.