Descripción del proyecto
THE STUDY OF MARINE HABITATS IS A KEY COMPONENT FOR UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING OCEAN RESOURCES, IN ADDITION TO ITS INTRINSIC SCIENTIFIC INTEREST, UNDERWATER STUDIES CAN BE USED FOR ASSESSING SITES THAT ARE IMPORTANT FROM A CONSERVATION POINT OF VIEW, DETERMINING AREAS SENSITIVE TO DISTURBANCE AND POLLUTION, DEVELOPMENT OF COASTAL AND MARINE PROTECTED AREAS MANAGEMENT PLANS, IN CONSEQUENCE, SUCH STUDIES PROVIDE VALUABLE INDICATORS FOR ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND MONITORING OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES,RECENT TECHNICAL ADVANCES PROVIDE SCIENTISTS WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS TO ACQUIRE, PROCESS, AND MERGE VAST AMOUNTS OF OCEAN DATA, MAKING POSSIBLE THE GENERATION OF QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE INFORMATION ON MARINE HABITATS, HOWEVER, WHILE SEVERAL PROCESSING TOOLS ARE AVAILABLE IN THE MARKET FOR ANALYSIS AND INTERACTIVE 3D VISUALIZATION OF MULTI-BEAM SONAR DATA, LIMITATIONS IN IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES AND DATA INGESTION HAVE GREATLY RESTRICTED THE EXPLOITATION OF OPTICAL DATA, TO DATE, TO ITS FULL POTENTIAL, TYPICAL IMAGING SURVEYS GATHER TENS OF THOUSANDS OF IMAGES AND HOURS OF VIDEO THAT ARE ONLY INSPECTED VISUALLY BY USERS BUT NOT PUT IN A GEOGRAPHIC CONTEXT, ON THE OTHER HAND, MANY OF THE REGIONS OF INTEREST FOR THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY ARE LOCATED IN AREAS WITH 3-DIMENSIONAL RELIEF, AND OPTICAL IMAGES CAN ALSO HELP IN THE MODELING AND MONITORING OF THESE AREAS, FOR THIS REASON, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ALGORITHMS IS A MUST TO ENABLE THE CREATION OF 3D REPRESENTATIONS OF THE SEAFLOOR OVER AREAS OF A FEW HUNDREDS OF SQUARE METERS, WHILE HAVING ENOUGH GROUND RESOLUTION TO ALLOW THE IDENTIFICATION OF COLONIES OF A FEW CENTIMETERS SIZE, THUS, ADVANCED SOLUTIONS ARE REQUIRED TO OPTIMALLY PROCESS, COMBINE AND VISUALIZE THE COLLECTED DATA, SO THAT IT CAN BE EXPLOITED BY THE END USER,THIS PROJECT PROPOSES THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW HIGH RESOLUTION SEAFLOOR MAPPING SYSTEM FOR LARGE AREAS OF THE OCEAN FLOOR, WITH DIRECT APPLICATIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, OCEANOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, BIOLOGY AND THE OFFSHORE INDUSTRY, AN AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER VEHICLE (AUV) WILL BE DEPLOYED FROM A SHIP TO PERFORM A NEAR-BOTTOM, HIGH-RESOLUTION GEOPHYSICAL SURVEY (E,G,, BATHYMETRY, IMAGERY AND MAGNETICS), WHILE ALSO GATHERING ADDITIONAL DATA FROM THE SEAFLOOR AND WATER COLUMN (TURBIDITY, TEMPERATURE, SALINITY, ETC,), AT THE SAME TIME, AN ACOUSTIC POSITIONING SYSTEM LINKING THE SHIP AND THE AUV PROVIDES GEO-REFERENCED NAVIGATION DATA AS WELL AS COMMUNICATION WITH THE END USER, DURING THIS PHASE OF THE MISSION, THE AUV WILL FOLLOW PROGRAMMED PATHS WHILE TRACKING THE TERRAIN TO MAINTAIN OPTIMAL NAVIGATION AND TO OPTIMIZE BOTH SURVEY COVERAGE AND DATA QUALITY, SHIP NAVIGATION DATA WILL BE COORDINATED WITH THAT OF THE AUV FOR PRECISE POSITIONING AND RELIABLE ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATIONS, ONCE THE SURVEY IS COMPLETED, THE AUV IS RECOVERED AND THE ACQUIRED DATA IS SAVED, IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THESE NEAR-BOTTOM SURVEYS PROVIDE UNPRECEDENTED RESOLUTION OF THE SEAFLOOR STRUCTURE, IN THE ORDER OF TENS OF CENTIMETERS FOR MULTI-BEAM ACOUSTIC SYSTEMS AND OF FEW MILLIMETERS FOR OPTICAL SYSTEMS,AT A SECOND OFFLINE STEP, THE ACQUIRED DATA IS AUTOMATICALLY PROCESSED AND MERGED IN A UNIFIED FRAMEWORK, WITH THE AIM OF OBTAINING GEOREFERENCED, MULTI-MODAL MAPS OF THE AREAS OF INTEREST, ONE OF THE IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF THE PROJECT IS THE COMBINED USE OF ORTHOMOSAICING AND VERY DETAILED 3D MODELS OF THE OCEAN FLOOR,