Physics-Based Modelling and Simulation of Multibeam Echosounder Perception for Autonomous Underwater Manipulation
One of the key distinguishing aspects of underwater manipulation tasks is the perception challenges of the ocean environment, including turbidity, backscatter, and lighting effects. Consequently, underwater perception often relies on sonar-based measurements to estimate the vehicle’s state and surro...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Robotics and AI |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.706646/full |
| _version_ | 1819019838606016512 |
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| author | Woen-Sug Choi Derek R. Olson Duane Davis Mabel Zhang Andy Racson Brian Bingham Michael McCarrin Carson Vogt Jessica Herman |
| author_facet | Woen-Sug Choi Derek R. Olson Duane Davis Mabel Zhang Andy Racson Brian Bingham Michael McCarrin Carson Vogt Jessica Herman |
| author_sort | Woen-Sug Choi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | One of the key distinguishing aspects of underwater manipulation tasks is the perception challenges of the ocean environment, including turbidity, backscatter, and lighting effects. Consequently, underwater perception often relies on sonar-based measurements to estimate the vehicle’s state and surroundings, either standalone or in concert with other sensing modalities, to support the perception necessary to plan and control manipulation tasks. Simulation of the multibeam echosounder, while not a substitute for in-water testing, is a critical capability for developing manipulation strategies in the complex and variable ocean environment. Although several approaches exist in the literature to simulate synthetic sonar images, the methods in the robotics community typically use image processing and video rendering software to comply with real-time execution requirements. In addition to a lack of physics-based interaction model between sound and the scene of interest, several basic properties are absent in these rendered sonar images–notably the coherent imaging system and coherent speckle that cause distortion of the object geometry in the sonar image. To address this deficiency, we present a physics-based multibeam echosounder simulation method to capture these fundamental aspects of sonar perception. A point-based scattering model is implemented to calculate the acoustic interaction between the target and the environment. This is a simplified representation of target scattering but can produce realistic coherent image speckle and the correct point spread function. The results demonstrate that this multibeam echosounder simulator generates qualitatively realistic images with high efficiency to provide the sonar image and the physical time series signal data. This synthetic sonar data is a key enabler for developing, testing, and evaluating autonomous underwater manipulation strategies that use sonar as a component of perception. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T03:41:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-45a4cee9db3e43318a783d51f0b90782 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-9144 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T03:41:41Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Robotics and AI |
| spelling | doaj.art-45a4cee9db3e43318a783d51f0b907822022-12-21T19:17:12ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Robotics and AI2296-91442021-09-01810.3389/frobt.2021.706646706646Physics-Based Modelling and Simulation of Multibeam Echosounder Perception for Autonomous Underwater ManipulationWoen-Sug Choi0Derek R. Olson1Duane Davis2Mabel Zhang3Andy Racson4Brian Bingham5Michael McCarrin6Carson Vogt7Jessica Herman8Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United StatesNaval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United StatesNaval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United StatesOpen Robotics, Mountain View, CA, United StatesNaval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United StatesNaval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United StatesNaval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United StatesNaval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United StatesNaval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United StatesOne of the key distinguishing aspects of underwater manipulation tasks is the perception challenges of the ocean environment, including turbidity, backscatter, and lighting effects. Consequently, underwater perception often relies on sonar-based measurements to estimate the vehicle’s state and surroundings, either standalone or in concert with other sensing modalities, to support the perception necessary to plan and control manipulation tasks. Simulation of the multibeam echosounder, while not a substitute for in-water testing, is a critical capability for developing manipulation strategies in the complex and variable ocean environment. Although several approaches exist in the literature to simulate synthetic sonar images, the methods in the robotics community typically use image processing and video rendering software to comply with real-time execution requirements. In addition to a lack of physics-based interaction model between sound and the scene of interest, several basic properties are absent in these rendered sonar images–notably the coherent imaging system and coherent speckle that cause distortion of the object geometry in the sonar image. To address this deficiency, we present a physics-based multibeam echosounder simulation method to capture these fundamental aspects of sonar perception. A point-based scattering model is implemented to calculate the acoustic interaction between the target and the environment. This is a simplified representation of target scattering but can produce realistic coherent image speckle and the correct point spread function. The results demonstrate that this multibeam echosounder simulator generates qualitatively realistic images with high efficiency to provide the sonar image and the physical time series signal data. This synthetic sonar data is a key enabler for developing, testing, and evaluating autonomous underwater manipulation strategies that use sonar as a component of perception.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.706646/fullreal-time simulationunderwater roboticsmultibeam echosounderpoint scattering modelgazebo framework |
| spellingShingle | Woen-Sug Choi Derek R. Olson Duane Davis Mabel Zhang Andy Racson Brian Bingham Michael McCarrin Carson Vogt Jessica Herman Physics-Based Modelling and Simulation of Multibeam Echosounder Perception for Autonomous Underwater Manipulation Frontiers in Robotics and AI real-time simulation underwater robotics multibeam echosounder point scattering model gazebo framework |
| title | Physics-Based Modelling and Simulation of Multibeam Echosounder Perception for Autonomous Underwater Manipulation |
| title_full | Physics-Based Modelling and Simulation of Multibeam Echosounder Perception for Autonomous Underwater Manipulation |
| title_fullStr | Physics-Based Modelling and Simulation of Multibeam Echosounder Perception for Autonomous Underwater Manipulation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Physics-Based Modelling and Simulation of Multibeam Echosounder Perception for Autonomous Underwater Manipulation |
| title_short | Physics-Based Modelling and Simulation of Multibeam Echosounder Perception for Autonomous Underwater Manipulation |
| title_sort | physics based modelling and simulation of multibeam echosounder perception for autonomous underwater manipulation |
| topic | real-time simulation underwater robotics multibeam echosounder point scattering model gazebo framework |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.706646/full |
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