• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.142-149
• /
• 2012

The camera has limitations of poor visibility in underwater environment due to the limited light source and medium noise of the environment. However, its usefulness in close range has been proved in many studies, especially for navigation. Thus, in this paper, vision-based object detection and tracking techniques using artificial objects for underwater robots have been studied. We employed template matching and mean shift algorithms for the object detection and tracking methods. Also, we propose the weighted correlation coefficient of adaptive threshold -based and color-region-aided approaches to enhance the object detection performance in various illumination conditions. The color information is incorporated into the template matched area and the features of the template are used to robustly calculate correlation coefficients. And the objects are recognized using multi-template matching approach. Finally, the water basin experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed techniques using an underwater robot platform yShark made by KORDI.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.14-21
• /
• 2019

In the ground environment, mobile robot research uses sensors such as GPS and optical cameras to localize surrounding landmarks and to estimate the position of the robot. However, an underwater environment restricts the use of sensors such as optical cameras and GPS. Also, unlike the ground environment, it is difficult to make a continuous observation of landmarks for location estimation. So, in underwater research, artificial markers are installed to generate a strong and lasting landmark. When artificial markers are acquired with an underwater sonar sensor, different types of noise are caused in the underwater sonar image. This noise is one of the factors that reduces object detection performance. This paper aims to improve object detection performance through distortion and rotation augmentation of training data. Object detection is detected using a Faster R-CNN.

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

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.139-149
• /
• 2019

In this paper, we present auto-annotation tool and synthetic dataset using 3D CAD model for deep learning based object detection. To be used as training data for deep learning methods, class, segmentation, bounding-box, contour, and pose annotations of the object are needed. We propose an automated annotation tool and synthetic image generation. Our resulting synthetic dataset reflects occlusion between objects and applicable for both underwater and in-air environments. To verify our synthetic dataset, we use MASK R-CNN as a state-of-the-art method among object detection model using deep learning. For experiment, we make the experimental environment reflecting the actual underwater environment. We show that object detection model trained via our dataset show significantly accurate results and robustness for the underwater environment. Lastly, we verify that our synthetic dataset is suitable for deep learning model for the underwater environments.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.91-98
• /
• 2016

Detection and classification of underwater objects in sonar imagery are challenging problems. This paper proposes a system that detects and identifies underwater objects at the sea floor level using a sonar image and image processing techniques. The identification process of underwater objects consists of two steps; detection of candidate regions and identification of underwater objects. The candidate regions of underwater objects are extracted by image registration through the detection of common feature points between the reference background image and the current scanning image. And then, underwater objects are identified as the closest pattern within the database using eigenvectors and eigenvalues as features. The proposed system is expected to be used in efficient securement of Q route in vessel navigation.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.118-128
• /
• 2018

In this paper, we have studied how to search an underwater object by learning the image generated by the side scan sonar in the convolution neural network. In the method of human side analysis of the side scan image or the image, the convolution neural network algorithm can enhance the efficiency of the analysis. The image data of the side scan sonar used in the experiment is the public data of NSWC (Naval Surface Warfare Center) and consists of four kinds of synthetic underwater objects. The convolutional neural network algorithm is based on Faster R-CNN (Region based Convolutional Neural Networks) learning based on region of interest and the details of the neural network are self-organized to fit the data we have. The results of the study were compared with a precision-recall curve, and we investigated the applicability of underwater object detection in convolution neural networks by examining the effect of change of region of interest assigned to sonar image data on detection performance.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.19 no.8
• /
• pp.667-675
• /
• 2013

This paper presents vision-based techniques for underwater landmark detection, map-based localization, and SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) in structured underwater environments. A variety of underwater tasks require an underwater robot to be able to successfully perform autonomous navigation, but the available sensors for accurate localization are limited. A vision sensor among the available sensors is very useful for performing short range tasks, in spite of harsh underwater conditions including low visibility, noise, and large areas of featureless topography. To overcome these problems and to a utilize vision sensor for underwater localization, we propose a novel vision-based object detection technique to be applied to MCL (Monte Carlo Localization) and EKF (Extended Kalman Filter)-based SLAM algorithms. In the image processing step, a weighted correlation coefficient-based template matching and color-based image segmentation method are proposed to improve the conventional approach. In the localization step, in order to apply the landmark detection results to MCL and EKF-SLAM, dead-reckoning information and landmark detection results are used for prediction and update phases, respectively. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated by experiments with an underwater robot platform in an indoor water tank and the results are discussed.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.72-79
• /
• 2019

Underwater object detection method adopting electrical resistivity technique was proposed recently, and the need of advanced data processing algorithm development counteracting various marine environmental conditions was required. In this paper, we present an improved water tank experiment system and its operation results, which can provide efficient test and verification. The main features of the system are as follows: 1) All the processes enabling real time process for not only simultaneous gathering of object images but also the electrical field measurement and visualization are carried out at 5 Hz refresh rates. 2) Data acquisition and processing for two detection lines are performed in real time to distinguish the moving direction of a target object. 3) Playback and retest functions for the saved data are equipped. 4) Through the monitoring screen, the movement of the target object and the measurement status of two detection lines can be intuitively identified. We confirmed that the enhanced physical modeling system works properly and facilitates efficient experiments.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.8-15
• /
• 2020

This research is a case study of underwater object tracking based on real-time recurrent regression networks (Re³). Re³ has the concept of generic object tracking. Because of these characteristics, it is very effective to apply this model to unclear underwater sonar images. The model also an pursues object tracking method, thus it solves the problem of calculating load that may be limited when object detection models are used, unlike the tracking models. The model is also highly intuitive, so it has excellent continuity of tracking even if the object being tracked temporarily becomes partially occluded or faded. There are 4 types of the dataset using multi-beam sonar images: including (a) dummy object floated at the testbed; (b) dummy object settled at the bottom of the sea; (c) tire object settled at the bottom of the testbed; (d) multi-objects settled at the bottom of the testbed. For this study, the experiments were conducted to obtain underwater sonar images from the sea and underwater testbed, and the validity of using noisy underwater sonar images was tested to be able to track objects robustly.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.39 no.5_3
• /
• pp.909-919
• /
• 2023

Benthic marine invertebrates, the invertebrates living on the bottom of the ocean, are an essential component of the marine ecosystem, but excessive reproduction of invertebrate grazers or pirate creatures can cause damage to the coastal fishery ecosystem. In this study, we compared and evaluated You Only Look Once Version 7 (YOLOv7), the most widely used deep learning model for real-time object detection, and detection tansformer (DETR), a transformer-based model, using underwater images for benthic marine invertebratesin the coasts of South Korea. YOLOv7 showed a mean average precision at 0.5 (mAP@0.5) of 0.899, and DETR showed an mAP@0.5 of 0.862, which implies that YOLOv7 is more appropriate for object detection of various sizes. This is because YOLOv7 generates the bounding boxes at multiple scales that can help detect small objects. Both models had a processing speed of more than 30 frames persecond (FPS),so it is expected that real-time object detection from the images provided by divers and underwater drones will be possible. The proposed method can be used to prevent and restore damage to coastal fisheries ecosystems, such as rescuing invertebrate grazers and creating sea forests to prevent ocean desertification.