Title :
Extended range distributed laser serial imaging in turbid estuarine and coastal conditions
Author :
Dalgleish, F. ; Bing Ouyang ; Vuorenkoski, A. ; Metzger, B. ; Ramos, B. ; Britton, W.
Author_Institution :
Ocean Visibility & Opt. Lab., Florida Atlantic Univ., Fort Pierce, FL, USA
Abstract :
One pressing need in the drive to better secure the coastal environment and associated natural and manmade assets is the ability to rapidly identify suspicious undersea objects. Typically murky harbor and coastal waters render this task nearly impossible, even with the most sophisticated underwater camera technologies. However, simpler system architectures that can extend operational range and also rapidly transmit high-quality imagery and other information to remote locations could be realized if a serial laser illuminator and single element detector sub-systems are operated in a distributed configuration, possibly among multiple undersea robotic platforms. To gain a better understanding of the potential performance of this distributed undersea imaging technique in natural waters, and also to determine if precise alignment is required between laser illuminator and detector sub-systems during such operations, the Ocean Visibility and Optics Laboratory at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute recently developed a prototype distributed laser imager. The system was tested recently in a range of very turbid estuarine conditions off the east coast of Florida. Results from these experiments as well as a description of this distributed laser imager prototype will be presented and discussed in this paper.
Keywords :
autonomous underwater vehicles; geophysical image processing; oceanographic techniques; seawater; turbidity; underwater optics; Florida; Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute; USA; coastal waters; distributed laser imager; distributed laser imager prototype; extended range distributed laser serial imaging; high-quality imagery; manmade assets; murky harbor; natural assets; ocean optics laboratory; ocean visibility laboratory; remote locations; serial laser illuminator; single element detector subsystems; system architectures; turbid coastal condition; turbid east coast; turbid estuarine condition; undersea object identification; underwater camera technologies; Laser modes; Measurement by laser beam; Optical imaging; Optical receivers; Optical transmitters; distributed sensing; laser serial imaging; underwater communications;
Conference_Titel :
Oceans, 2012
Conference_Location :
Hampton Roads, VA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-0829-8
DOI :
10.1109/OCEANS.2012.6405056