Underwater mapping 1980 - 2019
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01 - Recent Advances in Accurate Underwater Mapping and Inspection Techniques
Authors: John O. Klepsvik, Hans Olav Torsen This paper, published in 1989, reviews the underwater mapping techniques available during this period and their expected evolution.
02 - HAWAII MR1: A New Underwater Mapping Tool
Author: Mark Rognstad Date of publication: 1992 The HIG Acoustic Wide Angle Imaging Instrument, Mapping Researcher 1 (HAWAII MR1) was an ocean floor mapping sonar designed and built at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics of the University of Hawaii. Towed behind a ship at a depth of 100 meters, it could measure acoustic backscatter reflectivity and bathymetry over a swath up to 25 km wide in all ocean depths.
05 - Bringing geoheritage underwater - Mapping in the shallow water
Authors: M Vacchi, A Rovere, V Parravicini, M Firpo, M. Burlando, N. Zouros Date of publication: 2008 A complete and accurate mapping of a coastal area necessarily includes the description of the shore and the underwater side of the coastline. However, underwater mapping is strongly constrained by diving time and logistics. This presentation illustrates an experience of mapping the geoheritage in shallow waters of the Lesvos Petrified Forest Geopark of Lesvos island using snorkeling.
06 - A new approach for Visual Underwater Mapping using Topological Shell Maps
Authors: JSilvia Silva da Costa Botelho, Paulo Drews Jr, & Gabriel Leivas. Date of publication: 2009 This paper proposes an approach to visual odometry and mapping with underwater vehicles. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) can carry visual inspection cameras. Besides serving the activities of inspection and mapping, the captured images can also be used to aid navigation and localization of the robots. Visual odometry is the process of determining the position and orientation of a robot by analyzing the associated camera images.
07 - Effificient Image Mosaicing for Optical Underwater Mapping
Authors: Armagan Elibol, Nuno Gracias, Rafael Garcia, Art Gleason, Brooke Gintert, Diego Lirman and R. Pam Reid. Date of publication: 2012 This paper proposes a generic framework for image mosaicing to obtain the topology and estimate the best possible trajectory. Innovative aspects include using a fast image similarity criterion combined with a minimum spanning tree (MST) solution to obtain a tentative topology. This topology is improved by attempting image matching over the more substantial overlap evidence pairs.
08 - FFT-based Terrain Segmentation for Underwater Mapping
Authors: B. Douillard, N. Nourani-Vatani, M. Johnson-Roberson, S. Williams, C. Roman, O. Pizarro, I. Vaughn, G. Inglis. Date of publication: 2012 This paper presents a method for segmenting three- dimensional scans of unstructured underwater terrains.
09 - New advances in diver-towed underwater GPS receivers
Authors: Gerd Niedzwiedz, Dirk Schories Date of publication: 2013 The quality of scientific sampling, monitoring, or underwater mapping depends more and more on the exact allocation of place and time to the object of interest. That might be the sample itself or the visual documentation of the object of interest by high-resolution images, video sequences, or underwater mapping. Ideally, these data are accompanied by other geo-referenced physical and chemical datasets. In this document, written in 2012 - 2013, the authors focus on cable towed solutions and also discuss other promising alternatives that might be on the market.
10 - Towards three-dimensional underwater mapping without odometry
Authors: Alistair Dobke, Joshua Vasquez, Lauren Lieu, Ben Chasnov, Christopher Clark, Ian Dunn, Zoe, & J. Wood. This paper presents a method for creating three- dimensional maps of underwater cisterns and wells using a submersible robot equipped with two scanning sonars and a compass. Previous work in this area utilized a particle filter to perform offline simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in two dimensions using a single sonar. This work utilizes scan matching and incorporates an additional sonar that scans in a perpendicular plane.
13 - The NOPTILUS project overview: A fully-autonomous navigation system ofteams of AUVs for static/dynamic underwater map construction
Authors: A. Ch. Kapoutsis, G. Salavasidis, S. A. Chatzichristos, J. Braga, J. Pinto, J. B. Sousa, Elias B. Kosmatopoulos. Date of publication: 2015 The project NOPTILUS, was a system/methodology developed to allow the fully-autonomous navigation of teams of AUVs deployed in Static or Dynamic Underwater Map Construction (SDUMC) or Dynamic Underwater Phenomena Tracking (DUPT) missions.
16 - High-Resolution Underwater Mapping Using Side-Scan Sonar
Authors: Alista Date of publication: 2016 The goal of this study is to generate high-resolution seafloor maps using a Side-Scan Sonar(SSS).
20 - Real-time adaptive multi-robot exploration with application to underwater map construction
Authors: Athanasios Ch. Kapoutsis, Savvas A. Chatzichristofs, Lefteris Doitsidis, João Borges de Sousa, Jose Pinto, Jose Braga, Elias B. Kosmatopoulos. Date of publication: 2016 This paper discusses the problem of autonomous exploration of unknown areas using Autonomous Vehicles that have to navigate to construct an accurate map of the unknown area.
21 - Underwater Iceberg Profiling and Motion Estimation using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Author: Mingxi Zhou Date of publication: 2017 A technology of AUV-based underwater iceberg-profiling is evaluated in this paper. An iceberg-profiling simulator is constructed to analyze underwater iceberg-profiling missions. The operation accuracy is compared with conventional methods of deploying sonar profilers around icebergs. Beyond the simulation, a guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system is designed to guide the vehicle traveling around the iceberg at a standoff distance.
23 - Surface meshing of underwater maps from highly defective point sets
Authors: Ricard Campos, Rafael Garcia Date of publication: 2017 Owing to the many possible errors that may occur during real-world mapping, point set maps often present a considerable amount of outliers and significant levels of noise. This paper gives two robust surface reconstruction techniques dealing with corrupted point sets without resorting to any prefiltering step. They are based on building an unsigned distance function, discretely evaluated on an adaptive tetrahedral grid, and defined from an outlier-robust splat representation.
25 - 3D Grid Map Transmission for Underwater Mapping and Visualization under Bandwidth Constraints
Authors: Tomasz Łuczynski,, Tobias Fromm, Shashank Govindaraj, Christian A. Mueller, and Andreas Birk. Date of publication: 2017 ROV operations are expensive, and there is an urge to improve their efficiency and speed. The EU project ”Effective Dexterous ROV Operations in the presence of Communications Latencies (DexROV)” proposes a solution to those needs by developing a set of hardware and software tools to support the teleoperation of ROVs over a satellite link, i.e., from remote locations, including offshore sites.
26 - The preliminary assessment of reson hydrobat multibeam echosounder for seabed and underwater structures mapping under the pier
Authors: Hendra Kurnia Febriawan Date of publication: 2018 While piers can be mapped using various methods, capturing the seabed directly beneath them remains a challenge. Traditional single-beam and standard multibeam echosounders cannot produce the necessary detail for this task. However, newly developed high- resolution multibeam echosounders generate the dense, detailed imagery required for successful underwater pier mapping.
19 - A Review of the emerging field of underwater mass spectrometry
Authors: Emily J. Chua, William Savidge, Timothy Short, Andres M. Cardenas-Valencia, and Robinson W. Fulweiler. Underwater mass spectrometry (UMS) has drastically improved our capability to monitor a broad suite of gaseous compounds in the aquatic environment. This study provides an overview of the progress made from the nineties to the present day, particularly on the approaches undertaken by various research groups in developing mass spectrometers. It also provides examples of how underwater mass spectrometers have been used and the future trends.
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31 - Laser-based imaging applications in turbid waters
Authors: Thomas Scholz, Martin Laurenzis, and Frank Christnacher This document overviews advancements and applications in underwater laser-based imaging systems and data- processing techniques. It provides information about integrating these systems into platforms like remote- operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and highlights the importance of environmental conditions on imaging performance. It also seeks to present advanced 3D laser oblique scanning techniques and contrast enhancements for gated viewing based on experimental findings.
Authors: Maurice A.Tivey, Woods Hole, Albert Bradley, Dana Yoerger, Rodney Catanach, Alan Duester, Steve Liberatore, and Hanu Singh This text provides a presentation of the various types of underwater vehicles in service during the 90s that, like many documents published during this period, should be considered a historical reference.
03 - Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Maps Seafloor
04 - Mapping coastal optical and biogeochemical variability using an autonomous underwater vehicle and a new bio-optical inversion Algorithm
Authors: Catherine A. Brown, Yannick Huot, Michael J. Purcell, John J. Cullen, and Marlon R. Lewis Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can map water conditions at high spatial and temporal resolution, including under cloudy conditions. However, harnessing their full potential for oceanographic research requires innovative sampling and data processing techniques, especially in shallow littoral environments. This study describes a passive radiometer, which uses one optical sensor at depth to characterize variability in underwater clarity and coastal seawater constituents.
17 - Generation of High-resolution Three-dimensional Reconstructions of the Seafloor in Color using a Single Camera and Structured Light
Authors: Adrian Bodenmann, Tamaki Ura, and Blair Thornton This paper presents a three-dimensional mapping method based on light sectioning for capturing structure and color from seafloor images. The method offers high resolution bathymetry and is simple to setup and process. The system has been deployed on 11 cruises to survey manganese-rich crust deposits on the Pacific's Takuyo #5 seamount. The data collected from one cruise is presented in the paper.
Authors: Sandra Sendra, Jaime Lloret, Jose Miguel Jimenez, and Joel J.P.C. Rodrigues This paper presents a study on the behavior of electromagnetic waves (EM) in freshwater underwater environments. It discusses the minimum requirements for video delivery, measures the maximum distance between nodes, and analyzes the relationship between parameters like data transfer rate, signal modulations, working frequency, and water temperature. The results show that certain combinations of working frequency, modulation, transfer rate, and temperature offer better results, demonstrating that short communication distances with high data transfer rates are feasible.
18 - Underwater Communications for Video Surveillance Systems at 2.4 GHz
27 - Acoustic-telemetry payload control of an autonomous underwater vehicle for mapping tagged fish
Author: Tom Dodson, Thomas M. Grothues, John H. Eiler, Joseph A. Dobarro, Rahul Shome Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have improved their performance in tracking marine animals, but they struggle to accurately map the distribution of multiple tagged fish. A new payload control software, Synthetic Aperture Override (SAOVR), allows AUVs to navigate with favorable trajectories for solving tag locations. SAOVR checks constraints and executes permitted maneuvers, ensuring high predictability in AUV behavior. This system is beneficial for fish telemetry in challenging environments like fjords or reefs. Further modeling can improve template design for different fish species.
30 - Selected-Mapping Peak-to-Average Power Reduction Method with Orthogonal Pilot Sequences in Underwater Acoustic OFDM System Without Side Information
Authors: Qiao Gang, Xing Siyu, and Zhou Feng This document proposes a novel Selected-mapping (SLM) Peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction scheme for Underwater Acoustic (UWA) OFDM systems. This scheme uses orthogonal comb pilot sequences to represent distinct phase sequences, reducing PAPR by almost 0.5dB and improving Bit error ratio (BER) performance. Field experimental results show the scheme can differentiate phase sequences.
24 - Underwater Photogrammetry and 3D Reconstruction of Submerged Objects in Shallow Environments by ROV and Underwater GPS - Published by the Journal of marine science research & technology - Springer
Authors: Jonathan Teague, and Thomas B. Scott This article discusses the emergence of underwater 3D reconstruction techniques, particularly underwater photogrammetry, as a cost-effective alternative to traditional methods like Lidar and Sonar. Utilizing affordable off-the-shelf digital cameras and software, this technique proves advantageous in shallow water settings. The article further explores the use of low-cost remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for conducting underwater surveys, highlighting their speed and stability over diver-based methods.
28 - Georeferenced underwater photogammetry to map marine habitats and submeged artificial structures - Published by the Photogrammetric Record / Wiley Online
Authors: Arnaud Abadie, Pierre Boissery, Christophe Viala This article discusses recent advancements in underwater photogrammetry, focusing on two innovative methods that enhance geographic referencing through underwater photography. The first method integrates scuba diving with data from a multibeam echo sounder, while the second employs a surface floating device for direct positioning. The study concludes that the floating platform method offers greater mapping efficiency despite limitations related to depth and visibility. These advancements are poised to significantly benefit marine conservation efforts, particularly in monitoring seagrass meadows and artificial underwater structures.
14 - Adjustment of Sonar and Laser Acquisition Data for Building the 3D Reference Model of a Canal Tunnel
Authors: Emmanuel Moisan, Pierre Charbonnier, Philippe Foucher, Pierre Grussenmeyer, Samuel Guillemin, and Mathieu Koehl This paper presents a method for constructing a full 3D model of a canal tunnel by integrating terrestrial laser scans (above-water) and sonar scans (underwater). Challenges include artifacts from narrow environments and unknown sonar positioning. The approach involves denoising and meshing sonar data, followed by co- registering above and underwater point clouds. A robust algorithm leveraging geometrical entities and partially immersed targets aligns the models despite limited overlap, yielding a visually accurate 3D model of the canal tunnel entrance.
15 - Optical Sensors and Methods for Underwater 3D Reconstruction
Authors: Miquel Massot-Campos, and Gabriel Oliver- Codina This paper presents a survey on optical sensors and methods for 3D reconstruction in underwater environments. The techniques to obtain range data have been listed and explained, together with the different sensor hardware that makes them possible. The literature has been reviewed, and a classifcation has been proposed for the existing solutions. New developments, commercial solutions and previous reviews in this topic have also been gathered and considered.
22 - Optical Backscattering Measured by Airborne Lidar and Underwater Glider
Authors: Ricard Campos, Rafael Garcia This paper compares airborne lidar and underwater glider estimates of optical backscattering from ocean particles, both offering denser sampling than ship surveys. A moderate correlation (R = 0.28) was found, with discrepancies attributed to sampling mismatches, particle composition variability, and lidar errors. Two scattering regimes were identified: below 0.001 m-¹, lidar values were typically higher than glider values, while above this threshold, lidar values were generally lower. Despite differences, the findings indicate that airborne lidar and gliders provide comparable and complementary data on optical particulate backscattering.
29 - Path Following, Obstacle Detection and Obstacle Avoidance for Thrusted Underwater Snake Robots - Published by Frontiers
Authors: Eleni Kelasidi, Signe Moe, Kristin. Y. Pettersen, Anna M. Kohl, Pål Liljebäck, and Jan Tommy Gravdahl Unmanned underwater vehicles, particularly bio-inspired underwater snake robots (USRs), are increasingly used for mapping, monitoring, inspection, and intervention in fields like oceanography and oil/gas. USRs excel due to their flexible, slender bodies, offering better maneuverability and energy-efficient long-distance transit than conventional ROVs and AUVs. They also perform light intervention tasks and use biologically inspired motion for improved propulsion efficiency. This paper presents a USR control system for path following and obstacle avoidance, using a single camera and computer vision for detection.
11 - Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): Their past, present and future contributions to the advancement of marine geoscience
Authors: Russell B. Wynn et al. (13 authors) Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are transforming marine geoscience by enabling autonomous exploration of extreme environments, such as deep hydrothermal vents and polar ice sheets, and providing higher-resolution seafloor mapping than surface vessels, particularly in deep water. Key applications include studying submarine volcanism, hydrothermal vents, low- temperature fluid escapes, chemosynthetic ecosystems, and benthic habitats, as well as mapping seafloor features like ice-formed bedforms. Recent datasets demonstrate AUVs' versatility in multi-frequency acoustic imaging, high- resolution photomosaics at abyssal depths, and velocity measurements of submarine density flows.
12 - Development of Bathymetric Techniques
Author: Ismat Elhassan Underwater depth measurement supports marine commerce, underwater construction, coastal management, and industries like fishing and mining. Early methods like sounding lines and acoustic techniques were ship-based and inefficient, leaving vast water areas unmeasured. Modern remote sensing techniques, including airborne LIDAR and satellite sensors, now enable efficient depth determination, particularly for large water bodies. This paper reviews and compares traditional and modern bathymetric techniques based on accuracy, limitations, cost, and efficiency, while also highlighting recent applications.