Development of a hover-capable AUV system for automated visual ship-hull inspection and mapping

Abstract

Generally, underwater hull inspection have been conducted by human divers. It is an extremely dangerous task, and hence, can be a potential application for unmanned underwater vehicles. The operational safety and performance of in-water inspection can be significantly improved by introducing unmanned vehicle systems. This study addresses the development of an hover-capable autonomous underwater vehicle system and its operational algorithms for automated visual ship hull inspection with no (or minimum) human intervention. The feasibility and practical performance of the developed system and algorithms are demonstrated by conducting field experiments with a full-scale ship in a real sea environment.