I work for a company called Oceanic Imaging Consultants, and we specialize in software for seafloor mapping. In recent years we have seen an increase in customers who wish to mosaick the data that they collect with thier ROV, AUV or USV. Typically getting good quality position and heading in GPS denied environments would be the main challenge of mosaicking ROV data.
This year we have had a few customers inquire about mosaicking from a USV like the blueboat and others, and so I am posting here to gauge interest in USV sonar mapping. Is this something the community is interested in?
Its a great idea and a good solution to resolving GPS limitations underwater. Check out Cerulean’s recent upgrade to their SonarView software for their Omniscan product range as they have recently introduced exactly this for their sonar imaging data.
That is a very cool display. It looks like a great tool for visualizing your ROV navigation and for spatial orientation. However it does not seem to make geocoded mosaics unless I am missing something.
Yes that’s right as would require GPS data which seems more vehicle dependent. I’m certainly no expert but would have thought a geocoded mosaic would only require a single GPS point to be known (perhaps when the ROV was on the surface)? Since vehicle IMU is already incorporated in the sonar mosaic the GPS coordinates could be readily integrated across the subsequent mosaic?
I used an Omniscan 450 FS for the first time in the wild this week (and also my BlueROV2). Didn’t use the doppler tracking feature as still learning to use the ROV controls. The brief period I did have Omniscan running showed an extraordinary level of detail and provided excellent navigation and spatial awareness even for structures at distances of only a couple of metres - amazing!
I’m just cutting some video of that which will be uploaded to Youtube in the next couple of days so let me know if you’d like the link.
SonarView/Omniscan log files do record position and attitude data when it is available. While SonarView mosaicking is great for situational awareness, I’m thinking that fully featured mosaicking software is very likely more capable. We would be interested in working with any post processing/viewing software to support SonarView log files.