• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.238-244
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• 2021

Image mosaicking is a common and useful technique to visualize a global map by stitching a large number of local images obtained from visual surveys in underwater environments. In particular, visual inspection of underwater structures using underwater robots can be a potential application for image mosaicking. Feature-based pairwise image registration is a commonly employed process in most image mosaicking algorithms to estimate visual odometry information between compared images. However, visual features are not always uniformly distributed on the surface of underwater structures, and thus the performance of image registration can vary significantly, which results in unnecessary computations in image matching for poor-conditioned image pairs. This study proposes a pairwise registrability measure to select informative image pairs and to improve the overall computational efficiency of underwater image mosaicking algorithms. The validity and effectiveness of the image mosaicking algorithm considering the pairwise registrability are demonstrated using an experimental dataset obtained with a full-scale ship in a real sea environment.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.544-564
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• 2022

Underwater images often suffer from color distortion, blurring and low contrast, which is caused by the propagation of light in the underwater environment being affected by the two processes: absorption and scattering. To cope with the poor quality of underwater images, this paper proposes a multiscale fusion underwater image enhancement method based on channel attention mechanism and local binary pattern (LBP). The network consists of three modules: feature aggregation, image reconstruction and LBP enhancement. The feature aggregation module aggregates feature information at different scales of the image, and the image reconstruction module restores the output features to high-quality underwater images. The network also introduces channel attention mechanism to make the network pay more attention to the channels containing important information. The detail information is protected by real-time superposition with feature information. Experimental results demonstrate that the method in this paper produces results with correct colors and complete details, and outperforms existing methods in quantitative metrics.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제19권8호
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• pp.702-708
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• 2013

Underwater TRN (Underwater Terrain Referenced Navigation) estimates an underwater vehicle state by measuring a distance between the vehicle and undersea terrain, and comparing it with the known terrain database. TRN belongs to absolute navigation methods, which are used to compensate a drift error of dead reckoning measurements such as IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) or DVL (Doppler Velocity Log). However, underwater TRN is different to other absolute methods such as USBL (Ultra-Short Baseline) and LBL (Long Baseline), because TRN is independent of the external environment. As a magnetic-field-based navigation, TRN is a kind of geophysical navigation. This paper develops an EKF (Extended Kalman Filter) formulation for underwater TRN. A filter propagation part is composed by an inertial navigation system, and a filter update is executed with echo-sounder measurement. For large-initial-error cases, an adaptive EKF approach is also presented, to keep the filter be stable. At the end, simulation studies are given to verify the performance of the proposed TRN filter. With simplified sensor and terrain database models, the simulation results show that the underwater TRN could support conventional underwater navigation methods.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.641-648
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• 2009

Currently several kinds of sensor localization methods have been developed for terrestrial wireless sensor networks. This study, in order to extend the field to underwater environments, a localization technique is studied for UWSNs (Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks). In underwater environments, RF (Radio Frequency) signal is not suitable for underwater usage because of extremely limited propagation. Because of that reason UWSNs should be constituted with acoustic modems. But, to realize underwater application, we can borrow many design principles from ongoing research for terrestrial environments. So, in this paper we introduce the modified localization algorithm using ToA method which is based on the terrestrial research. First of all, we study the localization techniques for terrestrial environments where we investigate possible methods to underwater environment. And then the appropriate algorithm is presented in the underwater usage. Finally the proposed underwater based localization algorithm is evaluated by using computer.

• 한국전자통신학회논문지
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.997-1002
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• 2017

무선전파를 사용하는 지상통신과는 달리 1500[m/s] 속도의 음향채널이 사용되는 수중통신은 수중온도, 염도를 비롯한 통신환경에 민감할 뿐 아니라 3D 공간의 영향을 받는다. 3D 수중통신은 통신공간의 복잡성과 더불어 음파의 전파손실, 해저환경에서 발생되는 음향잡음 등에 민감하다. 본 연구에서는 이와 같은 3D 수중통신환경의 특성을 고려하여 3D 수중통신환경에서 운용되는 MANET을 대상으로 전송성능을 측정 분석하고 이를 토대로 수중 MANET 운용조건을 제시한다. 본 연구는 NS-2를 기반으로 구축한 수중통신 시뮬레이터를 사용하여 수행하며, 성능파라미터로는 처리율, 전송지연, 패킷손실율 및 소비에너지를 사용한다.

• 한국멀티미디어학회논문지
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• 제23권7호
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• pp.819-829
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• 2020

Underwater communication is necessarily useful for various application domains such as saving of human lives from underwater disasters, marine resource exploration, underwater military fields, underwater environment or ecosystem monitoring, fish farm monitoring and management, etc. Even though the acoustic wave has been the main underwater communication media until now, several media such as optical waves, VLF/ELF waves, magnetic fields, and infrared rays also began to be treated as possible media for underwater communication. If these underwater communicate-possible media are used mixing together, the underwater communication can be much more reliable and efficient through complementing the disadvantages of each communication media with advantages of other communication media. In fact, mixing and using multi-media for underwater communication requires the data flow control in the connection process of different media due to their communication speed gaps and bandwidth differences, and, specially, in the flow control, the appropriate message fragmentation technique is required inevitably. For this reason, this paper presents a fragmentation framework and technique necessary to the flow control in the underwater multi-media communication. In addition, through its implementation and experiments, this paper shows the feasibility on the realization of the multi-media based underwater communication.

• 한국해양공학회지
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• 제36권1호
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• pp.32-40
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• 2022

Underwater optical images face various limitations that degrade the image quality compared with optical images taken in our atmosphere. Attenuation according to the wavelength of light and reflection by very small floating objects cause low contrast, blurry clarity, and color degradation in underwater images. We constructed an image data of the Korean sea and enhanced it by learning the characteristics of underwater images using the deep learning techniques of CycleGAN (cycle-consistent adversarial network), UGAN (underwater GAN), FUnIE-GAN (fast underwater image enhancement GAN). In addition, the underwater optical image was enhanced using the image processing technique of Image Fusion. For a quantitative performance comparison, UIQM (underwater image quality measure), which evaluates the performance of the enhancement in terms of colorfulness, sharpness, and contrast, and UCIQE (underwater color image quality evaluation), which evaluates the performance in terms of chroma, luminance, and saturation were calculated. For 100 underwater images taken in Korean seas, the average UIQMs of CycleGAN, UGAN, and FUnIE-GAN were 3.91, 3.42, and 2.66, respectively, and the average UCIQEs were measured to be 29.9, 26.77, and 22.88, respectively. The average UIQM and UCIQE of Image Fusion were 3.63 and 23.59, respectively. CycleGAN and UGAN qualitatively and quantitatively improved the image quality in various underwater environments, and FUnIE-GAN had performance differences depending on the underwater environment. Image Fusion showed good performance in terms of color correction and sharpness enhancement. It is expected that this method can be used for monitoring underwater works and the autonomous operation of unmanned vehicles by improving the visibility of underwater situations more accurately.

• 한국항해항만학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국항해항만학회 2006년도 International Symposium on GPS/GNSS Vol.1
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• pp.333-335
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• 2006

Position of surface objects can be fixed in many ways. The most popular radionavigational systems, including satellite systems, make possible obtaining nearly continuous and very precise ship's position. However, under the water application of radionavigational systems is impossible. Underwater navigation requires other tools and solutions then these encountered in surface and air navigation. In underwater environment vehicles and submarines, operate that have to possess alternative navigational systems. Underwater vehicles, in order to perform their tasks require accurate information about their own, current position. At present, they are equipped with inertial navigational systems (INS). Accuracy of INS is very high but in relatively short periods. Position error is directly proportional to time of working of the system. The basic feature of INS is its autonomy and passivity. This characteristic mainly decides that INS is broadly used on submarines and other underwater vehicles. However, due to previously mentioned shortcoming i.e. gradually increasing position error, periodical calibration of the system is necessary. The simplest calibration method is surface or nearly surface application of GPS system. Another solution, which does not require interruption of performed task and emergence on the surface, is application of comparative navigation technique. Information about surrounding environment of the ship, obtained e.g. by means sonic depth finder or board sonar, and comparing it with accessible pattern can be used in order to fix ship's position. The article presents a structure and a description of working of underwater vehicle navigation system simulator. The simulator works on the basis of comparative navigation methods which exploit in turn digital images of echograms and sonograms. The additional option of the simulator is ability to robust estimation of measurements. One can do it in order to increase accuracy of position fixed with comparative navigation methods application. The simulator can be a basis to build future underwater navigation system.

• 전자공학회논문지
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• 제50권4호
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• pp.97-107
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• 2013

수중무선통신시스템은 AUV간 수중 무선통신, 해양환경 모니터링, 양식장 관리, 항만 감시, 자원 탐사 및 개발, 지형 및 지질 조사 등 다양한 산업에 활용 가능하다. 하지만 수중 무선 통신은 지상 무선 통신과는 달리 물이 가지고 있는 매질의 특성때문에 전력손실, 주위 잡음 및 인위 잡음, 멀티패스 등으로 인한 높은 에러율 그리고 긴 전송지연 등과 같은 요소들을 고려하여야 한다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 ALOHA 기반의 Media Access Control(MAC) 프로토콜과 CSMA/CA 기반의 MAC 프로토콜을 혼합하여 수중 환경에 적합한 MAC 프로토콜을 제안한다. 성능을 평가하기 위해 수학적 분석 모델을 제시하고, 구현을 통해 기존 MAC 프로토콜과 비교함으로써 성능의 개선점을 검증한다.

• 한국산학기술학회논문지
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• 제16권8호
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• pp.5571-5578
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• 2015

본 논문에서는 수중 수직통신채널 환경에서 Alamouti를 이용한 MIMO-OFDM 방식을 분석하였다. 수중 수직통신채널은 수중환경에 적합한 전달손실과 다중경로손실 등을 고려해야 해서 수중통신에서 통신 성능과 효율을 향상할 수 있는 방안이 필요하다. 따라서 본 논문은 각 손실을 고려한 실질적인 모의 수중통신 환경을 구현하기 위해, 오차를 유발하는 환경에서 다중경로 손실, 전달손실, 도플러확산을 고려하여 모델링하였고, 모델링된 임펄스응답에 대한 채널 다중경로 프로파일을 Alamouti STBC 방식의 MIMO-OFDM 시스템을 통하여 시뮬레이션 했다. 본 논문에서 제안한 수중 수직통신채널에서 모델링한 Alamouti STBC 방식의 MIMO-OFDM 시스템 2Tx-2Rx 방식이 2Tx-1Rx 방식에 비하여 $10^{-3}$ BER 기점을 기준으로 약 3~5 dB 가량의 이득을 얻었다.