• 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.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.382-390
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• 2021

Synthetic aperture sonars as well as side scan sonars or multibeam echo sounders have been commercialized and are widely used for seafloor imaging. In Korea related research such as the development of a towed synthetic aperture sonar system is underway. In order to obtain high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar images, it is necessary to accurately estimate the platform motion on which it is installed, and a precise underwater navigation system is required. In this paper we are going to provide reference data for determining the required navigation accuracy and precision of navigation sensors by quantitatively analyzing how much distortion of the sonar images occurs according to motion characteristics of the platform equipped with the synthetic aperture sonar. Five types of motions are considered and normalized root mean square error is defined for quantitative analysis. Simulation for error analysis with parameter variation of motion characteristics results in that yaw and sway motion causes the largest image distortion whereas the effect of pitch and heave motion is not significant.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.181-190
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• 2014

The underwater acoustic lens system is one of the systems getting high-resolution images on the seafloor by the beam forming method using acoustic lens. The beam forming using acoustic lenses reduces complexity and driving power. When receiving an incoming beam with the acoustic lens array, beam pattern analysis and arrangement problem of the array sensor must be addressed. Introducing SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio), the relationship among sensor interval, beam pattern and image quality would be analyzed. Generally if the sensor interval getting wider, the less effect of the side lobes makes SIR high. If the amplitude of a side lobe is high, SIR is generally getting low. The type of the apodization function changes the width, shape and amplitude of both main lobe and side lobes. Thus an appropriate apodization function can improve SIR. In this paper, SIR is stable at the sensor interval of 13mm with 0-10dB, which is not high relatively. By applying the Chebyshev function, the SIR becomes 80dB over the sensor interval of 37 mm or higher. The Hann and triangular functions demonstrate better SIR when the sensor interval becomes narrower.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2023

Various sources, such as wind, waves, ships, and gas leaks from the seafloor, forms bubbles in the ocean. Underwater bubbles cause signal scattering, considerably affecting acoustic measurements. This characteristic of bubbles is used to block underwater noise by attenuating the intensity of the propagated signal. Recently, researchers have been studying the large-scale release of methane gas as bubble plumes from the seabed. Understanding the physical properties and distribution of bubble plumes is crucial for studying the relation between leaked methane gas and climate change. Therefore, a water tank experiment was conducted to estimate the distribution of bubble plumes using seismic imaging techniques and acoustic signals obtained from artificially generated bubbles using a bubble generator. Reverse time migration was applied to image the bubble plumes while the acquired acoustic envelope signal was used to effectively estimate bubble distribution. Imaging results were compared with optical camera images to verify the estimated bubble distribution. The water tank experiment confirmed that the proposed system could successfully image the distribution of bubble plumes using reverse time migration and the envelope signal. The experiment showed that the scattering signal of artificial bubble plumes can be used for seismic imaging.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.57 no.8
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• pp.549-559
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• 2024

This study aims to investigate the feasibility of using image analysis methods to examine the flow characteristics of air bubbles discharged underwater. A bubble screen was created using multiple nozzles in a laboratory flume filled with stagnant water. The flow characteristics of the bubbles were analyzed, and the suitability of the analysis method was evaluated. Several parameters, such as projection area ratio and depth ratio, were defined to conduct laboratory experiments and analyze the flow characteristics of the bubbles. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to assess the relationships between various variables. Specifically, the correlation between the bubble's projection area and its rising speed across eight water depth ratios was examined. The results indicated that as the depth ratio increased, the bubble size exhibited a linear increase with a strong correlation as it rose to the water surface due to pressure effects. Regarding the sensitivity of different grid sizes in the ten analysis grids when applying image analysis methods, it was observed that the sensitivity to grid size based on the projection area ratio (0.09~0.96) was not significant. These findings suggest that image analysis techniques can be effectively utilized to observe the flow characteristics of bubbles.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.171-177
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• 2014

A two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (2D PIV) system in a towing tank is employed to measure a wake field of a very large crude oil carrier model with rotating propeller in self propulsion condition, to identify characteristics of wake of a propeller working behind a ship. Phase-averaged and time-averaged flow fields are measured for a horizontal plane. Scale ratio of the model ship is 1/100 and Froude number is 0.142. By phase-averaging technique, trajectories of tip vortex and hub vortex are identified and characteristic secondary vortex distribution is observed in the hub vortex region. Propeller wake on the starboard side is more accelerated than that on the port side, due to the difference of inflow of propeller blades. The hub vortex trajectory tends to face the port side. With the fluctuation part of the phase-averaged velocity field, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) is also derived. In the center of tip vortex and hub vortex region, high TKE concentration is observed. In addition, a time-averaged vector field is also measured and compared with phase-averaged vector field.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 2016

In order to obtain high-resolution seafloor images, research on SA (Synthetic Aperture) processing and the development of related underwater systems have been performed in many countries. Recently the SA processing is also recognized as an important technique in Korea and researchers started related basic study. However, most previous studies ignored the Doppler effect by a moving receiver array. In this paper reconstructed SAS (Synthetic Aperture Sonar) images and position errors are analyzed according to the speed of a moving array for understanding its moving effect on the SAS images. In the analysis the spatial frequency domain interpolation algorithm is used. The results show that as the moving speed of the array increases the estimated position error also increases and image distortion gets worse when we do not consider the array motion. However, if the compensated receiver signals considering the array motion are used the position error and image distortion can be eliminated. In conclusion a signal processing scheme which compensates the Doppler effect is necessary especially in the condition where the array speed is over 1 m/s.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.2
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• pp.95-106
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• 1998

Color Echo-sounder display signals reflected from underwater objects in eight colors according to the strength of the signal. When the sea bottom is hard due to the presence of rocks, etc, the trailing on the reflection become strong signal and soft to presence of mud, etc the trailing on the reflection become weak signal. Strong signals are displayed in the color range, reddish brown, orange and yellow, in descending order of intensity. Weak signals are displayed in the range blue, light blue, cyan and green, in ascending order of intensity. Image of fish schools at or near the sea bottom vary according to the characteristics of the beam angle setting. When the angle is wide, even fish not near the bottom may be recorded as being on the seabed. A narrow angle should, therefore, be selected when you want to get an accurate recording of fish at or near the sea bottom. The condition of the sea bottom can be determinded more easily when the beam angle is wide and pulse with is long. Though the objects could be verified by the type of reflected signals which have been transformed into digital signals strong middle and weak ones, the experiments have in continue under various condition. Futhermore, the methode of measuring temperature inside the sea ought to be examined.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.1669-1676
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• 2020

The IAEA held the IAEA Robotics Challenge 2017 (IRC2017) to protect workers during inspections of spent nuclear fuel and to improve work efficiency and accuracy rates. To this end, we developed an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) system called the spent fuel check vehicle (SCV). The SCV extracts and tracks the target through image processing, and it is necessary to find suitable parameters for the SNF storage environment in advance. This preliminary work takes time. It is also difficult to prepare the environment in which the work will proceed. In addition, if the preliminary work does not proceed as planned, the system will not move at the proper speed and will become unstable, with yawing and overshoot. To solve this problem, we developed a controller with a camera that can extract the depth at which the target is stored and allow distance-adaptive control. This controller is able to attenuate system instability factors such as yawing and overshoot better than existing controllers by continuously changing system operation parameters according to the depth. In addition, the time required for preliminary work during inspections can be shortened.

• Annual Conference of KIPS
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• 2016.10a
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• pp.510-513
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• 2016

Detecting of the object in image processing is substantial but it depends on the object itself and the environment. An object can be detected either by its shape or color. Color is an essential for pattern recognition and computer vision. It is an attractive feature because of its simplicity and its robustness to scale changes and to detect the positions of the object. Generally, color of an object depends on its characteristics of the perceiving eye and brain. Physically, objects can be said to have color because of the light leaving their surfaces. Here, we conducted experiment in the aquarium fish tank. Different color of fish robots are mimic the natural swim of fish. Unfortunately, in the underwater medium, the colors are modified by attenuation and difficult to identify the color for moving objects. We consider the fish motion as a moving object and coordinates are found at every instinct of the aquarium to detect the position of the fish robot using OpenCV color detection. In this paper, we proposed to identify the position of the fish robot by their color and use the position data to control the fish robot gathering in one point in the fish tank through serial communication using RF module. It was verified by the performance test of detecting the position of the fish robot.