• 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.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2013

The fish fauna of Munsom in Jeju-do, Korea, was investigated for a total of five times underwater from April 2009 to October 2010. Fish specimens were collected with a small net by SCUBA diving and fish specimens difficult to collect were photographed underwater using a underwater camera and a camcorder. The fish specimens collected from the sea around Munsom were identified as 91 species, belonging to 73 genera, 39 families, and 11 orders. Among them, the largest group was Order Perciformes, comprising 54 species and 21 families, consisting 59.3% in total number of species and the following 19 species of Order Scorpaeniformes was 20.8%. In this study Amblyeleotris sp. of family Gobiidae was discovered as new species by underwater photography in Korea. It was more the demersal fishes (55%) than the pelagic fishes (45%) and in social behavior pattern it was much more species swimming alone than schooling.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.845-850
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• 2018

In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the number of biofouling attached to the surface of marine structures. This method estimates the number of biofouling by calculating the region maxima using images taken in underwater. To do this, we analyze the correlation between the region maxima and the number of biofouling. The analysis showed that there is a significant correlation between the number of region maxima and the number of biofouling. By using the results of this analysis, the experiments were conducted on images taken in the underwater. Experimental results show that the higher the region maxima of the image, is greater than the number of biofouling in the image. The proposed method can be used as an important technology in computer vision for underwater images.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.164-173
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• 2014

In underwater robotics, vision would be a key element for recognition in underwater environments. However, due to turbidity an underwater optical camera is rarely available. An underwater imaging sonar, as an alternative, delivers low quality sonar images which are not stable and accurate enough to find out natural objects by image processing. For this, artificial landmarks based on the characteristics of ultrasonic waves and their recognition method by a shape matrix transformation were proposed and were proven in Part 1. But, this is not working properly in undulating and dynamically noisy sea-bottom. To solve this, we propose a framework providing a selection phase of likelihood candidates, a selection phase for final candidates, recognition phase and tracking phase in sequence images, where a particle filter based selection mechanism to eliminate fake candidates and a mean shift based tracking algorithm are also proposed. All 4 steps are running in parallel and real-time processing. The proposed framework is flexible to add and to modify internal algorithms. A pool test and sea trial are carried out to prove the performance, and detail analysis of experimental results are done. Information is obtained from tracking phase such as relative distance, bearing will be expected to be used for control and navigation of underwater robots.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.735-739
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• 2010

This study investigated a method for monitoring fishes immigrating to upper streams from the sea in relation to water level with elapsed time, and measured fish behavior patterns and swimming speed in a fishing boat gateway using an acoustic camera system. This method was employed due to difficulties, linked to high turbidity, of using only underwater optical systems for monitoring fish migrating to brackish water. Results showed that fish length distribution showed high correlation between haul sampling and an automatic counting algorithm supported by the DIDSON software program. These results will help to maximize the effects of fish run management by increasing understanding of the amount of major fish species migrating in relation to durable water levels.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.4 s.287
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• pp.259-263
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• 2006

The applicability of UPT (Ultrasound Pulse Thermography) for real-time defect detection of the ceramic heating plate is described. The ceramic heating plate with superior insulation and high radiation is used to control the water temperature in underwater environment. The underwater temperature control system can be damaged owing to the short circuit, which resulted from the defect of the ceramic heating plate. A high power ultrasonic energy with pulse duration of 280 ms was injected into the ceramic heating plate in the vertical direction. The ultrasound excited vibration energy sent into the component propagate inside the sample until they were converted to the heat in the vicinity of the defect. Therefore, an injection of the ultrasound pulse wave which results in heat generation, turns the defect into a local thermal wave transmitter. Its local emission is monitored and recorded via the thermal infrared camera at the surface which is processed by image recording system. Measurements were Performed on 4 kinds of samples, composed of 3 intact plates and the defect plate. The observed thermal image revealed two area of crack in the defective ceramic heating plate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.679-688
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• 2009

Worldwide exploring and research for manganese nodules, as new energy resource, distributed on the deep seabed have progressed recently. Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute(KORDI) is a central organization to exploit the manganese nodules in the Pacific Ocean with 5,000m depth. Precise exploration is required for estimating amount of recoverable deposit, and this task could be accomplished by processing digital image processing techniques to the images taken by underwater camera system. Image processing and analysis provide information about characteristics of distribution of the manganese nodules. This study proposed effective methods to remove vignetting effect to improve image quality and to extract information. The results show more reliable information could be obtained by removing the vignetting and feasibility of utilizing image processing techniques for exploring the manganese nodules.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.7
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• pp.1081-1087
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• 2015

Recently, the researches of aerial drones are actively executed in various areas, the researches of surface drones and underwater drones are also executed in marine areas. In case of surface drones, they essentially utilize acoustic information by the sonar and consequently have the local information in the obstacle avoidance as the sonar has the limitations due to the beam width and detection range. In order to overcome this, more global method that utilizes optical images by the camera is required. Related to this, the aerial drone with the camera is desirable as the obstacle detection of the surface drone with the camera is impossible in case of the existence of clutters. However, the dynamic-floating aerial drone is not desirable for the long-term operation as its power consumption is high. To solve this problem, a collaborative obstacle avoidance method based on the acoustic information by the sonar of the surface drone and the optical image by the camera of the static-floating aerial drone is proposed. To verify the performance of the proposed method, the collaborative obstacle avoidances of a MSD(Micro Surface Drone) with an OAS(Obstacle Avoidance Sonar) and a BMAD(Balloon-based Micro Aerial Drone) with a camera are executed. The test results show the possibility of real applications and the need for additional studies.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.221-226
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• 2016

An attitude controller for a 6-DOF hovering autonomous underwater vehicle (HAUV) is implemented. We add a vertical thruster, an underwater camera, a wireless communication device, and a DVL to the HAUV that was developed a year ago. The HAUV is composed of 5 thrusters, 2 servo-motors, and 4 apparatus parts. Two rotating thrusters control the surge, heave, and roll of the vehicle. The vertical thruster controls the pitch, and two horizontal thrusters control the sway and yaw of the vehicle. The HAUV’s movement in each direction is controlled by 6 PID controllers. Each PID controller controls the propulsive force and angle of a thruster. In a horizontal and vertical movement experiment, we showed the feasibility of the proposed controller by maintaining a given depth and heading angle of the HAUV.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• summer
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• pp.597-601
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• 2004

HVDC(High Voltage Direct Current) is an underwater cable between Jeju Island and Haenam in main land and supplies approximately $50\%$ of electrical usage in Jeju Island. If there is any power failure due to HVDC, it will cost approximately 50,000 US dollars per day including Thermal Electrical Generation. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to recover the problem in rapid timely basis. Present survey method in Korea is done by scuba diver with air cylinder resulting very poor visual inspection. Other option is by only visual camera attached on miniature ROV for solely suey Purpose. This method does not includeburial depth of cable, cable position, cable condition & etc??‥‥.??? In result, current method does not generate any scientific or sophisticated data which does not allow any intelligent management decision. In conclusion, new method and new systems are needed urgently to upgrade current HVDC underwater cable survey technique in Korea to minimize the cost and time factors.