• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.435-449
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• 2020

This paper proposes a method to estimate the underwater target object's yaw angle using a sonar image. A simulator modeling imaging mechanism of a sonar sensor and a generative adversarial network for style transfer generates realistic template images of the target object by predicting shapes according to the viewing angles. Then, the target object's yaw angle can be estimated by comparing the template images and a shape taken in real sonar images. We verified the proposed method by conducting water tank experiments. The proposed method was also applied to AUV in field experiments. The proposed method, which provides bearing information between underwater objects and the sonar sensor, can be applied to algorithms such as underwater localization or multi-view-based underwater object recognition.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.351-360
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• 2020

Of late, demand for test sites for marine equipment such as ASV, AUV, ROV, and various underwater sensors is increasing. The authors have focused on an oscillating water column (OWC), which is being constructed near Chagwido Island Jeju, as one of the test-sites. The main objective of the OWC is to produce wave energy and develop technologies. It has been built in the sea approximately 1 km off the coast. It has berth accommodation and some rooms that can be used as laboratories. To investigate the feasibility of its usage as a test site for marine equipment, we acquired bathymetric data around the OWC by using a multi-beam echo sounder and a single-beam scanning sonar. The accessibility of the OWC from nearby ports and the use of support vessels or ships were also investigated. 3D point cloud data from the multi-beam echo sounder and 2D acoustic images from the scanning sonar are expected to be used as references for identifying changes over time. In addition, through these experiments, we derived a procedure to use this facility as a test site by using the IDEF0 functional modelling method. Based on this preliminary investigation and previously reported examples, we determined the general conditions and preferences for evaluating the performance of various marine equipment heuristically. Finally, we developed five applications that were derived from this investigation.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.97-107
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• 2013

Underwater wireless communication systems can be useful for underwater environment observation, catastrophe prevention, ocean resources exploration, ocean organism research, vessel sinking exploration, and so on. However, unlike terrestrial wireless communication, underwater wireless communication should consider factors such as long propagation delay, limited transmission capacity, high bit-error rate due to potential loss in power, ambient noise, man-made noise, multi-path, etc., because of the inherent characteristics of water. Thus, in this paper, we propose a suitable media access control(MAC) protocol that applies a combination of the ALOHA MAC protocol and the CSMA/CA MAC protocol to underwater environment. We further propose a mathematical analysis model to evaluate performance. We also verify performance improvement in the proposed scheme in comparison with existing MAC protocols.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.116-122
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• 2016

This paper proposes a practical object shape reconstruction method using an underwater imaging sonar. In order to reconstruct the object shape, three methods are utilized. Firstly, the vertical field of view of imaging sonar is modified to narrow angle to reduce an uncertainty of estimated 3D position. The wide vertical field of view makes the incorrect estimation result about the 3D position of the underwater object. Secondly, simple noise filtering and range detection methods are designed to extract a distance from the sonar image. Lastly, a low pass filter is adopted to estimate a probability of voxel occupancy. To demonstrate the proposed methods, object shape reconstruction for three sample objects was performed in a basin and results are explained.