• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.16 no.3
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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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• v.16 no.2
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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.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.8
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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.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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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.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.997-1002
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• 2017

Underwater communication, which is used acoustic channel of 1500[m/s] speed being different of wireless electric wave in terrestrial communication, is sensitive on water temperature and salinity and also affected from 3D underwater space. 3D underwater communication is sensitive on propagation loss of acoustic wave and underwater noise with complexity of communication space. In this paper, transmission performance with consideration of these characteristics of 3D underwater communication environments is measured and analyzed on MANET operated on 3D underwater communication environments. Some underwater MANET operation conditions will be suggested. Computer simulation with underwater simulator based on NS-2 will be used for performance measure, performance parameter like as throughput, transmission delay, packet loss rate and consumed energy will be used in simulation for performance measure.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.23 no.7
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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.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.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.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.97-107
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• 2013

Underwater wireless communication systems can be useful for underwater environment observation, catastrophe prevention, ocean resources exploration, ocean organism research, vessel sinking exploration, and so on. However, unlike terrestrial wireless communication, underwater wireless communication should consider factors such as long propagation delay, limited transmission capacity, high bit-error rate due to potential loss in power, ambient noise, man-made noise, multi-path, etc., because of the inherent characteristics of water. Thus, in this paper, we propose a suitable media access control(MAC) protocol that applies a combination of the ALOHA MAC protocol and the CSMA/CA MAC protocol to underwater environment. We further propose a mathematical analysis model to evaluate performance. We also verify performance improvement in the proposed scheme in comparison with existing MAC protocols.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.5571-5578
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• 2015

In this paper, we analyzed Alamouti based the MIMO-OFDM system in an underwater vertical communication channels. These in consideration both the transmission loss the multipath loss which is suitable for underwater environment are necessary method to improve the efficiency and communication performance in underwater communication. This paper is modeled in an environment that caused the error, considered each simulated the multi-path loss, transmission loss, the Doppler spread in order to implement a practical communication environment and simulated through the MIMO-OFDM system of Alamouti STBC method. The MIMO-OFDM system 2Tx-2Rx of Alamouti STBC scheme in underwater vertical communication system is obtained about 3~5 dB gain as compare with its 2Tx-1Rx scheme with reference $10^{-3}$ BER.