A Multibeam-Based SLAM Algorithm for Iceberg Mapping Using AUVs

Using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for mapping underwater topography of sea-ice and icebergs, or detecting keels of ice ridges, is foreseen as enabling technology in future arctic marine operations. Wind, current, and Coriolis forces affect an iceberg's trajectory, making automated map...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE Access
Main Authors: Petter Norgren, Roger Skjetne
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2018
Subjects:
Ocean engineering
AUV
SLAM
multibeam
arctic technology
iceberg management
Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
TK1-9971
Arctic
Hugin
Iceberg*
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2830819
https://doaj.org/article/4f6ba297550c46d4869eea9cf1e2e930
Description
Summary:Using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for mapping underwater topography of sea-ice and icebergs, or detecting keels of ice ridges, is foreseen as enabling technology in future arctic marine operations. Wind, current, and Coriolis forces affect an iceberg's trajectory, making automated mapping difficult. This paper presents a method aiming at enabling autonomous iceberg mapping using AUVs equipped with a multibeam echosounder by estimating the position and orientation of the iceberg. The method is based on a bathymetric simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm, namely, the bathymetric distributed particle filter SLAM (BPSLAM) algorithm. The proposed method estimates the AUV's pose in an iceberg-fixed coordinate system. The relative states can be used for both guiding the vehicle to achieve complete coverage, as well as estimation of a consistent iceberg topography. The algorithm also provides an estimate of the iceberg's drift velocity - an important parameter for the AUV trajectory planning as well as any related ice management (IM) operations. Two new weighting algorithms for the BPSLAM method are proposed, enabling batch processing of multibeam echosounder (MBE) measurements to ensure real-time operation without discarding information. The proposed method is demonstrated using a real iceberg topography taken from the PERD iceberg sightings database, with simulated AUV and MBE range measurements. The algorithm is also evaluated on a real world bathymetric dataset, collected using the HUGIN HUS AUV.

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