• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.340-352
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• 2022

This article presents a modeling method for the uncorrelated measurement error of the ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system for aiding navigation of underwater vehicles. The Mahalanobis distance (MD) and principal component analysis are applied to decorrelate the errors of USBL measurements, which are correlated in the x- and y-directions and vary according to the relative direction and distance between a reference station and the underwater vehicles. The proposed method can decouple the radial-direction error and angular direction error from each USBL measurement, where the former and latter are independent and dependent, respectively, of the distance between the reference station and the vehicle. With the decorrelation of the USBL errors along the trajectory of the vehicles in every time step, the proposed method can reduce the threshold of the outlier decision level. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, simulation studies were performed with motion data obtained from a field experiment involving an autonomous underwater vehicle and USBL signals generated numerically by matching the specifications of a specific USBL with the data of a global positioning system. The simulations indicated that the navigation system is more robust in rejecting outliers of the USBL measurements than conventional ones. In addition, it was shown that the erroneous estimation of the navigation system after a long USBL blackout can converge to the true states using the MD of the USBL measurements. The navigation systems using the uncorrelated error model of the USBL, therefore, can effectively eliminate USBL outliers without loss of uncontaminated signals.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.231-242
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• 2012

This paper proposes particle filter(PF) method using acoustic signal for localization of an underwater robot. The method uses time of arrival(TOA) or time difference of arrival(TDOA) of acoustic signals from beacons whose locations are known. An experiment in towing tank uses TOA information. Simulation uses TDOA information and it reveals dependency of the localization performance on the uncertainty of robot motion and senor data. Also, comparison of the PF method with the least squares method of spherical interpolation(SI) and spherical intersection(SX) is provided. Since PF uses TOA or TDOA which comes from measurement of external information as well as internal motion information, its estimation is more accurate and robust to the sensor and motion uncertainty than the least squares methods.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.139-149
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• 2019

In this paper, we present auto-annotation tool and synthetic dataset using 3D CAD model for deep learning based object detection. To be used as training data for deep learning methods, class, segmentation, bounding-box, contour, and pose annotations of the object are needed. We propose an automated annotation tool and synthetic image generation. Our resulting synthetic dataset reflects occlusion between objects and applicable for both underwater and in-air environments. To verify our synthetic dataset, we use MASK R-CNN as a state-of-the-art method among object detection model using deep learning. For experiment, we make the experimental environment reflecting the actual underwater environment. We show that object detection model trained via our dataset show significantly accurate results and robustness for the underwater environment. Lastly, we verify that our synthetic dataset is suitable for deep learning model for the underwater environments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.10-21
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• 2021

Recently, the demand for atypical structures with functions and sculptural beauty is increasing in the construction industry. Existing mold-based structure production methods have many advantages, but building complex atypical structures represents limitations due to the cost and technical characteristics. Production methods using molding are suitable for mass production systems, but production cost, construction period, construction cost, and environmental pollution can occur in small quantity batch production. The recent trend in the construction industry calls for new construction methods of customized small quantity batch production methods that can produce various types of sophisticated structures. In addition to the economic effects of developing related technologies of 3D Concrete Printers (3DCP), it can enhance national image through the image of future technology, the international status of the construction civil engineering industry, self-reliance, and technology export. Until now, 3DCP technology has been carried out in producing and utilizing residential houses, structures, etc., on land or manufacturing on land and installing them underwater. The final purpose of this research project is to produce marine structures by directly printing various marine structures underwater with 3DCP equipment. Compared to current underwater structure construction techniques, constructing structures directly underwater using 3DCP equipment has the following advantages: 1) cost reduction effects: 2) reduction of construct time, 3) ease of manufacturing amorphous underwater structures, 4) disaster prevention effects. The core element technology of the 3DCP equipment is to extrude the transferred composite materials at a constant quantitative speed and control the printing flow of the materials smoothly while printing the output. In this study, the extruding module of the 3DCP equipment operates underwater while developing an extruding module that can control the printing flow of the material while extruding it at a constant quantitative speed and minimizing the external force that can occur during underwater printing. The research on the development of 3DCP equipment for printing concrete structures underwater and the preliminary experiment of printing concrete structures using high viscosity low-flow concrete composite materials is explained.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1422-1430
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• 2016

Researches for oceans are limited to military purpose such as underwater sound detection and tracking system. Underwater acoustic communications with low-probability-of-interception (LPI) covert characteristics were received much attention recently. Covert communications are conducted at a low received signal-to-noise ratio to prevent interception or detection by an eavesdropper. This paper proposed optimal covert communication model based on direct sequence spread spectrum for underwater environments. Spread spectrum signals may be used for data transmission on underwater acoustic channels to achieve reliable transmission by suppressing the detrimental effect of interference and self-interference due to jamming and multipath propagation. The characteristics of the underwater acoustic channel present special problems in the design of covert communication systems. To improve performance and probability of interception, we applied BCJR(Bahl, Cocke, Jelinek, Raviv) decoding method and the direct sequence spread spectrum technology in low SNR. Also, we compared the performance between conventional model and proposed model based on turbo equalization by simulation and lake experiment.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.20-35
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• 2015

Underwater acoustic channel impulse responses (CIR) are influenced by sound speed profile (SSP), and the variation of CIR has significant effects on the performance of underwater acoustic communication systems. A significant change of SSP can occur within a short period, which must be considered during the design of underwater acoustic modems. This paper statistically analyzes the effect of the variation of SSP on the long-range acoustic signal propagation in shallow-water with thermocline using numerical modeling based on the data acquired from JACE13 experiment near Jeju island. The analysis result shows that CIR changes variously according to the SSP and the depth of the transmitter and receiver. We also found that when the transmitter and receiver are deeper, the variation of sound wave propagation pattern is smaller and signal level becomes higher. All CIR obtained in this study show that a series of bottom reflections due to downward refraction and small bottom loss in the shallow water with thermocline can be very important factor for long-range signal transmission and the performance of underwater acoustic communication system in time varying ocean environment can be very sensitive to the variation of SSP even for a short period of time.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.522-526
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• 2015

Generally, underwater unmanned vehicle have adopted an inertial navigation system (INS), dead reckoning (DR), acoustic navigation and geophysical navigation techniques as the navigation method because GPS does not work in deep underwater environment. Even if the tactical inertial sensor can provide very detail measurement during long operation time, it is not suitable to use the tactical inertial sensor for small size and low cost UUV because the tactical inertial sensor is expensive and large. One alternative to INS is attitude heading reference system (AHRS) with the micro-machined electro mechanical system (MEMS) inertial sensor because of MEMS inertial sensor's small size and low power requirement. A cost effective and small size attitude heading reference system (AHRS) which incorporates measurements from 3-axis micro-machined electro mechanical system (MEMS) gyroscopes, accelerometers, and 3-axis magnetometers has been developed to provide a complete attitude solution for UUV. The AHRS based MEMS overcome many problems that have inhibited the adoption of inertial system for small UUV such as cost, size and power consumption. Several evaluation experiments were carried out for the validation of the developed AHRS's function and these experiments results are presented. Experiments results prove the fact that the developed MEMS AHRS satisfied the required specification.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.298-307
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• 2019

The evolution of the cavity and the variation of the drag for an underwater body with control fins are investigated through a numerical analysis of the steady cavitating turbulent flow. The continuity and the steady-state RANS equations are numerically solved using a mixture fluid model for calculating the multiphase turbulent flow of air, water and vapor together with the SST $k-{\omega}$ turbulence model. The method of volume of fluid is applied by the use of the Sauer's cavitation model. Numerical solutions have been obtained for the cavity flow about an underwater body shaped like the Russian high-speed torpedo, Shkval. Results are presented for the cavity shape and the drag of the body under the influence of the gravity and the free surface. The evolution of the cavity with the body speed is discussed and the calculated cavity shapes are compared with the photographs of the cavity taken from an underwater launch experiment. Also the variation of the drag for a wide range of the body speed is investigated and analyzed in details.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.204-211
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the effect of progressive speed increase during underwater gait training on stroke patients' balance, gait, and endurance, as well as to compare the effects of underwater gait training and land gait training. Methods: Subjects were randomly allocated into three groups. Underwater gait training group (n=10), land gait training group (n=9) and control group (n=9). The groups performed their respective programs as well as conventional physical therapy 3 times/week for 8 weeks. The patients were assessed before and after the experiment in terms of the Berg balance scale, characteristics of gait, and 6-minute walking test. Results: The beneficial effect perceived in the speed increase underwater gait training (UGT) group was significantly greater than in the groups who were trained with speed increase land gait training (LGT) group, and the control group regarding the following aspects: the Berg balance scale, the affected step length, the affected stride length, and the 6-minute walking test (p<0.05). The LGT group showed a more significant effect on the Berg balance scale, the affected step length, the affected stride length, and the 6-minute walking test (p<0.05), compared to the control group. Furthermore, the UGT group showed a significantly greater effect on the gait speed when compared to the control groupb (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study shows that progressive UGT is effective in improving balance, gait, and endurance in stroke patients. Therefore, we believe that progressive UGT may be used as a method for general physical therapy in patients with stroke.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.118-128
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• 2018

In this paper, we have studied how to search an underwater object by learning the image generated by the side scan sonar in the convolution neural network. In the method of human side analysis of the side scan image or the image, the convolution neural network algorithm can enhance the efficiency of the analysis. The image data of the side scan sonar used in the experiment is the public data of NSWC (Naval Surface Warfare Center) and consists of four kinds of synthetic underwater objects. The convolutional neural network algorithm is based on Faster R-CNN (Region based Convolutional Neural Networks) learning based on region of interest and the details of the neural network are self-organized to fit the data we have. The results of the study were compared with a precision-recall curve, and we investigated the applicability of underwater object detection in convolution neural networks by examining the effect of change of region of interest assigned to sonar image data on detection performance.