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Remote Sensing
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Advances in Positioning, Navigation and 3D Mapping of Underwater Environments
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Advances in Positioning, Navigation and 3D Mapping of Underwater Environments

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Engineering Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 May 2024 | Viewed by 6970

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Fabio Menna

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
3DOM - 3D Optical Metrology Unit, FBK - Bruno Kessler Foundation, Via Sommarive 18, 38123 Povo-Trento, Italy
Interests: underwater photogrammetry; bundle adjustment mobile mapping; optical metrology; SLAM; geodetic surveying; 3D mapping
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Erica Nocerino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Interests: underwater photogrammetry; quality assessment; system calibration; 3D surveying and mapping
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Dimitrios Skarlatos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Cyprus University of Technology, 30 Archbishop Kyprianos Street, Limassol 3036, Cyprus
Interests: underwater; image-based modelling; UAV; mapping; photogrammetry; color correction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Caterina Balletti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architecture and Arts, Università Iuav di Venezia, Santa Croce 191, 30135 Veezia, Italy
Interests: geomatics; remote sensing; metric survey techniques for cultural heritage assets; digital representation for cultural heritage assets
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Dr. Panagiotis Agrafiotis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Rural, Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens, Greece
Interests: through-water photogrammetry; underwater mapping; remote sensing; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Gottfried Mandlburger

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Guest Editor
TU Wien, Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Research Division Photogrammetry, Wiedner Hauptstr. 8 / E120-07 (DC02M30), Vienna, Austria
Interests: laser scanning; laser bathymetry; multimedia photogrammetry; topography; geomorphology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The future of our planet depends on our oceans’ health and inland water resources. In the United Nation Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, there is a compelling need for efficient and effective scientific methods for studying and understanding our oceans. Three-dimensional mapping is, in this regard, a main priority, and several projects to accomplish full 3D mapping of the ocean floor have been initiated over the last few years, leveraging the state-of-the-art technologies currently available. From inland streams of water to rivers and lakes to the ocean shores and down to the deepest unexplored crevices of our oceans, challenges abound that require prompt scientific and technological answers. Three-dimensional mapping is an invaluable means by which to understand the complex dynamics of the most important element for life. Although accurate solutions for 3D mapping exist, many are still costly and time-consuming.

This Special Issue aims to collect contributions on advances in positioning, navigation, and 3D mapping of underwater environments focusing on innovative, low-cost, effective, and efficient methods.

Research manuscripts, reviews, and technical notes are welcome. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: methods related to underwater 3D mapping, such as through-water airborne photo-bathymetry; lidar bathymetry; acoustic and optical positioning; underwater geodetic surveying; underwater photogrammetry; visual inertial simultaneous localization and mapping; subsea metrology, multi- and hyperspectral imaging; satellite remote sensing; and autonomous unmanned as well tethered systems.

Dr. Fabio Menna
Dr. Erica Nocerino
Dr. Dimitrios Skarlatos
Dr. Caterina Balletti
Dr. Panagiotis Agrafiotis
Dr. Gottfried Mandlburger
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • underwater photogrammetry
  • lidar and photo bathymetry
  • underwater positioning and navigation
  • subsea metrology
  • simultaneous localization and mapping - SLAM
  • AUV, ASV, ROV, towed vehicles, and diver operated systems

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 11702 KiB  
Article
Georeferencing Strategies in Very Shallow Waters: A Novel GCPs Survey Approach for UCH Photogrammetric Documentation
by Alessio Calantropio and Filiberto Chiabrando
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(8), 1313; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16081313 - 09 Apr 2024
Viewed by 324
Abstract
The growing interest of the scientific community in surveying and monitoring submerged assets is motivated by the increasing demand for high-resolution products with certified accuracies. While many instrumental and methodological solutions for documenting, monitoring, and studying archaeological and cultural heritage through geomatics techniques [...] Read more.
The growing interest of the scientific community in surveying and monitoring submerged assets is motivated by the increasing demand for high-resolution products with certified accuracies. While many instrumental and methodological solutions for documenting, monitoring, and studying archaeological and cultural heritage through geomatics techniques are already available for the terrestrial environment, the challenge remains open to the underwater context. High-resolution capability and accurate positioning are still difficult to achieve in these environments. This paper discusses the limitations of positioning and georeferencing techniques in the underwater environment. It explores how existing methods and new instruments can be used to perform accurate topographic surveys of ground control points (GCPs) in very shallow waters (within 5 m depths), which can support the photogrammetric reconstruction of underwater assets. This research presents two innovative prototypes: a self-built plastic marker for topographic use in the underwater environment and a self-built aluminum pole for topographic use in the marine environment. The prototypes are tested and validated with a tilt-compensating smart antenna to reduce planar and altimetric errors when the pole is not perfectly level and to work independently of the shore proximity required when using a total station to perform said measurements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Positioning, Navigation and 3D Mapping of Underwater Environments)
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20 pages, 8333 KiB  
Article
Self-Adaptive Colour Calibration of Deep Underwater Images Using FNN and SfM-MVS-Generated Depth Maps
by Marinos Vlachos and Dimitrios Skarlatos
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(7), 1279; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16071279 - 04 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1034
Abstract
The task of colour restoration on datasets acquired in deep waters with simple equipment such as a camera with strobes is not an easy task. This is due to the lack of a lot of information, such as the water environmental conditions, the [...] Read more.
The task of colour restoration on datasets acquired in deep waters with simple equipment such as a camera with strobes is not an easy task. This is due to the lack of a lot of information, such as the water environmental conditions, the geometric setup of the strobes and the camera, and in general, the lack of precisely calibrated setups. It is for these reasons that this study proposes a self-adaptive colour calibration method for underwater (UW) images captured in deep waters with a simple camera and strobe setup. The proposed methodology utilises the scene’s 3D geometry in the form of Structure from Motion and MultiView Stereo (SfM-MVS)-generated depth maps, the well-lit areas of certain images, and a Feedforward Neural Network (FNN) to predict and restore the actual colours of the scene in a UW image dataset. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Positioning, Navigation and 3D Mapping of Underwater Environments)
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23 pages, 23360 KiB  
Article
High-Resolution Gravity Measurements on Board an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle: Data Reduction and Accuracy Assessment
by Dinh Toan Vu, Jérôme Verdun, José Cali, Marcia Maia, Charles Poitou, Jérôme Ammann, Clément Roussel, Jean-François D’Eu and Marie-Édith Bouhier
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(3), 461; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16030461 - 25 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 879
Abstract
Gravity on Earth is of great interest in geodesy, geophysics, and natural resource exploration. Ship-based gravimeters are a widely used instrument for the collection of surface gravity field data in marine regions. However, due to the considerable distance from the sea surface to [...] Read more.
Gravity on Earth is of great interest in geodesy, geophysics, and natural resource exploration. Ship-based gravimeters are a widely used instrument for the collection of surface gravity field data in marine regions. However, due to the considerable distance from the sea surface to the seafloor, the spatial resolution of surface gravity data collected from ships is often insufficient to image the detail of seafloor geological structures and to explore offshore natural minerals. Therefore, the development of a mobile underwater gravimetry system is necessary. The GraviMob gravimeter, developed for a moving underwater platform by Geo-Ocean (UMR 6538 CNRS-Ifremer-UBO-UBS), GeF (UR4630, Cnam) and MAPPEM Geophysics, has been tested over the last few years. In this study, we report on the high-resolution gravity measurements from the GraviMob system mounted on an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, which can measure at depths of up to several kilometres. The dedicated GraviMob underwater gravity measurements were conducted in the Mediterranean Sea in March 2016, with a total of 26 underwater measurement profiles. All these measurement profiles were processed and validated. In a first step, the GraviMob gravity measurements were corrected for temperature based on a linear relationship between temperature and gravity differences. Through repeated profiles, we acquired GraviMob gravity measurements with an estimated error varying from 0.8 to 2.6 mGal with standard deviation after applying the proposed temperature correction. In a second step, the shipborne gravity data were downward continued to the measurement depth to validate the GraviMob measurements. Comparisons between the corrected GraviMob gravity anomalies and downward continued surface shipborne gravity data revealed a standard deviation varying from 0.8 to 3.2 mGal and a mean bias value varying from −0.6 to 0.6 mGal. These results highlight the great potential of the GraviMob system in measuring underwater gravity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Positioning, Navigation and 3D Mapping of Underwater Environments)
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21 pages, 9019 KiB  
Article
Virtual Metrology Filter-Based Algorithms for Estimating Constant Ocean Current Velocity
by Yongjiang Huang, Xixiang Liu, Qiantong Shao and Zixuan Wang
Remote Sens. 2023, 15(16), 4097; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15164097 - 20 Aug 2023
Viewed by 996
Abstract
The strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS) and Doppler velocity log (DVL) integrated navigation system are widely used for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Whereas DVL works in the water tracking mode, the velocity provided by DVL is relative to the current layer and cannot [...] Read more.
The strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS) and Doppler velocity log (DVL) integrated navigation system are widely used for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Whereas DVL works in the water tracking mode, the velocity provided by DVL is relative to the current layer and cannot be directly used to suppress the divergence of SINS errors. Therefore, the estimation and compensation of the ocean current velocity play an essential role in improving navigation positioning accuracy. In recent works, ocean currents are considered constant over a short term in small areas. In the common KF algorithm with the ocean current as a state vector, the current velocity cannot be estimated because the current velocity and the SINS velocity error are coupled. In this paper, two virtual metrology filter (VMF) methods are proposed for estimating the velocity of ocean currents based on the properties that the currents remain unchanged at the adjacent moments. New measurement equations are constructed to decouple the current velocity and the SINS velocity error, respectively. Simulations and lake tests show that both proposed methods are effective in estimating the current velocity, and each has its advantages in estimating the ocean current velocity or the misalignment angle. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Positioning, Navigation and 3D Mapping of Underwater Environments)
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24 pages, 8590 KiB  
Article
Statistical Assessment of Some Interpolation Methods for Building Grid Format Digital Bathymetric Models
by Pier Paolo Amoroso, Fernando J. Aguilar, Claudio Parente and Manuel A. Aguilar
Remote Sens. 2023, 15(8), 2072; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15082072 - 14 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1448
Abstract
As far as the knowledge of the seabed is concerned, both for safe navigation and for scientific research, 3D models, particularly digital bathymetric models (DBMs), are nowadays of fundamental importance. This work aimed to evaluate the quality of DBMs according to the interpolation [...] Read more.
As far as the knowledge of the seabed is concerned, both for safe navigation and for scientific research, 3D models, particularly digital bathymetric models (DBMs), are nowadays of fundamental importance. This work aimed to evaluate the quality of DBMs according to the interpolation methods applied to obtain grid format 3D surfaces from scattered sample points. Other complementary factors affecting DBM vertical accuracy, such as seabed morphological complexity and surveyed points sampling density, were also analyzed by using a factorial ANOVA experimental design. The experiments were performed on a multibeam dataset provided by the Italian Navy Hydrographic Institute (IIM) with an original resolution of 1 m × 1 m grid spacing, covering a surface of 0.24 km2. Six different sectors comprising different seabed morphologies were investigated. Eight sampling densities were randomly extracted from every sector, each with four repetitions. Finally, four different interpolation methods were tested, including: radial basis multiquadric function (RBMF), ordinary kriging (OK), universal kriging (UK) and Gaussian Markov random fields (GMRF). The results demonstrated that both RBMF and OK produced very accurate DBM in areas characterized by low levels of seabed ruggedness at sampling densities of only 0.0128 points/m2 (equivalent grid spacing of 8.84 m). In contrast, a higher density of 0.1024 points/m2 (3.13 m grid spacing) was required to produce accurate DBM in areas with more complex seabed topography. On the other hand, UK and GMRF were strongly influenced by morphology and sampling density, yielding higher vertical random errors and more prone to slightly overestimate seabed depths. In addition, sampling density and morphology were the factors that most influenced the vertical accuracy of the interpolated DBM. In this sense, the highly statistically significant influence of the interaction between sampling density and morphology on the vertical accuracy of the interpolated DBM confirms the need to perform a preliminary analysis of seabed morphological complexity in order to increase, if necessary, the number of surveyed points in cases of complex morphologies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Positioning, Navigation and 3D Mapping of Underwater Environments)
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26 pages, 1768 KiB  
Article
Tightly Coupled INS/APS Passive Single Beacon Navigation
by Zhuoyang Zou, Wenrui Wang, Bin Wu, Lingyun Ye and Washington Yotto Ochieng
Remote Sens. 2023, 15(7), 1854; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15071854 - 30 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1155
Abstract
Unlike aerial or terrestrial navigation, the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is not available underwater. This is a big challenge for underwater navigation. The inertial navigation system (INS) aided by the single-beacon acoustic positioning system (APS) provides one solution, but the long-range case [...] Read more.
Unlike aerial or terrestrial navigation, the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is not available underwater. This is a big challenge for underwater navigation. The inertial navigation system (INS) aided by the single-beacon acoustic positioning system (APS) provides one solution, but the long-range case is limited by low-SNR conditions. Inspired by passive synthetic aperture detection, we proposed a new tightly coupled navigation algorithm based on spatial synthesis and one-way-travel-time (OWTT) range measurement. We design two estimators: the DOA/range estimator using the model-based method and the tightly coupled INS/APS navigation estimator. Based on the improved UKF, all information is combined. Simulation is carried out in MATLAB. Compared with range-only tightly coupled INS/APS navigation, synthetic long baseline (SLBL) algorithm and Doppler velocity logger (DVL) aided centralized extended Kalman filter (CEKF) based single beacon INS/OWTT navigation, the proposed method’s performance is proven. The main contributions of this work are: (1). Propose a new architecture of underwater integrated navigation; (2). Apply the passive acoustic detecting method in the navigation to improve accuracy. (3). Apply the tightly coupled method to improve availability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Positioning, Navigation and 3D Mapping of Underwater Environments)
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