Operating Strategy based on acoustic imaging sonars for CR200 in Low Visibility Environment and Experiments

Authors
Hyuk Baek, Jin-Yeong Park, Bong-Huan Jun, Bo-Ram Kim, Pan-Mook Lee

수중로봇기술연구회 추계학술대회, 2013, Changwon in Korea 

Abstract - In this paper, we propose operating strategy for multi-legged underwater walking robot,
CR200 to overcome low visibility environment. Experiments to verify the performance of the strategy and their results are also included. There are three kinds of sensors on CR200 to acquire underwater images. The first one is conventional optical camera system. Performance of the optical camera system becomes very limited in turbid water. The second one and last one are high resolution single beam scanning sonar and multi-beam acoustic camera, respectively. The scanning sonar scans and acquires images around CR200 out to maximum 100m. The acoustic camera images out to maximum 5m with highest resolution of 3mm. CR200 is able to move on the sea-floor without disturbing sediment and keep its position under strong tidal currents using its six legs. In addition, the robot can control its attitude finely and decrease body oscillation caused by external disturbances. With these characteristics, we can operate the CR200 as an adaptive active tripod in underwater. For example, CR200 is able to decrease water surface reflected noise on images of the scanning sonar by changing its attitude. Experiments were conducted in South Sea Research Institute of KIOST in July, 2013.

(Pressed in Korean)