We are in the process of developing a large USV (2.5 m) for remotely collecting sediment and sludge samples using a ultrasonic coring device. Some of the potential locations where we could use this may have underwater hazards, such as mangroves, deadheads, or trees just under the surface. The USV will be using a Navigator as its main autopilot running BlueOS and Rover FW. We have successfully tested above water collision avoidance using various radar and lidar units, but have never tested underwater. I was thinking of mounting a ping 360 at the front of the USV and setting the sector scan to 60 deg or so so it is only looking forward. Has anyone tried this before or done any type of underwater obstacle avoidance?
Thanks for the info…would you recommend the Surveyor multibeam or an Omniscan 450 FS nfor this application? Any reason the mapping Surveyor would be a better option? Thanks!
The Omniscan 450 FS would require your vehicle to rotate to do the scan. Also the output is just an intensity profile in time so you would have to have additional s/w to decide what’s an object.
The Ping 360 would do the scanning for you (rather than having to rotate the vehicle which you would need to do with the Omniscan), but also the return is a series of intensity profiles over time which you would have to process to detect objects.
The Surveyor 240 (mounted facing forward rather than down) would give you actual point detections across an 80 degree swath on every ping.
I’ve tested APF algrithm to avoid obstacles, the sector scan was set to 80 deg(~3s per period) like you did, while the scan cloud points were full of noise, which needed careful filtered. More importantly, you’d better process history cloud point and local minimal problem, which would heavily infect the final avoidance result.