Results on underwater mosaic-based navigation

This paper presents results on mosaic-based visual navigation of an underwater autonomous vehicle, navigating close to the sea floor. A high-quality video-mosaic is automatically built to be used as a representation of the environment. A visual servoing strategy is adopted to drive the vehicle along a specified trajectory (indicated by way-points) relative to the mosaic. The control errors are defined by registering the instantaneous views acquired by the vehicle with the mosaic. Extensive testing was conducted at sea, where the vehicle was able to autonomously navigate over the mosaic for extended periods of time. The presented results illustrate the validity and appropriateness of the approach.