Terminal Underwater Docking of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Using One Camera and One Light

Abstract

AbstractThis study introduces a vision guidance system for the terminal underwater docking of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) using one camera and one light. The configuration of this docking system, including an overview of the AUV and the docking station, is proposed. A detailed description of the vision guidance system is then provided. Four stages, namely, image acquisition, binarization of the captured images, elimination of noisy luminaries, and estimation of the relative position, constitute the image processing procedure. A tracking control algorithm based on the position of the dock center in the image coordinate obtained through image processing has been proposed. This algorithm can guide the AUV to the docking station without requiring distance information. A pool trial has been conducted at night to validate the proposed algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the vision guidance system despite the initial lateral deviation of up to 8 m. This paper ends with an analysis of the advantages and defects of this vision guidance system and proposes future works.