MIT’s New Tech Gives Underwater Robots Perfect 3D Vision in Murky Waters
Just a tiny fraction of one percent of the ocean floor has been visually surveyed by cameras due to the challenging conditions encountered there. Many factors make ocean mapping difficult, including the pressures exerted by deep water, wireless communication issues, and turbidity that obscures vision. These problems also plague commercial operations involving underwater infrastructure construction and maintenance.
Researchers at MIT have just developed a new imaging system that addresses one of these problems head-on. Thanks to their efforts, future underwater vehicles will be able to get a clear view of their surroundings, no matter how murky the water may be.
The new system, called Sonar-MASt3R, combines data from optical cameras and sonar sensors to generate detailed three-dimensional maps of underwater environments in real time. This technology is designed specifically for situations where visibility is severely degraded by suspended sediment and other particles.
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