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Visual inspection of hydroelectric dams using an autonomous underwater vehicle
Author(s) -
Ridao Pere,
Carreras Marc,
Ribas David,
Garcia Rafael
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of field robotics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.152
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4967
pISSN - 1556-4959
DOI - 10.1002/rob.20351
Subject(s) - computer vision , artificial intelligence , robot , engineering , underwater , computer science , remotely operated underwater vehicle , set (abstract data type) , mobile robot , geography , programming language , archaeology
This paper presents an automated solution to the visual inspection problem of hydroelectric dams. A small autonomous underwater vehicle, controllable in four degrees of freedom (surge, sway, heave, and yaw), is used for autonomously exploring the wall of a dam. The robot is easily programmed using a mission control language. Missions are executed by an intelligent control architecture that guides the robot to follow a predefined path surveying the wall. During the mission, the robot gathers onboard navigation data synchronized with optical imagery, sonar, and absolute navigation data, obtained from a moored buoy equipped with an ultra‐short baseline system. After the mission, the images of the wall are used to build a photomosaic of the inspected area. First, image features are matched over the image sequence. Then, navigation data and interimage correspondences are optimized together using bundle adjustment techniques. Thus, a georeferenced globally aligned set of images is obtained. Finally, a blending algorithm is used to obtain smooth seam transitions among the different images that constitute the mosaic, compensating for light artifacts and improving the visual perception of the scene. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.