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Visual sensing for autonomous underwater exploration and intervention tasks

Underwater activities, such as surveying or interventions, carried out by autonomous robots, can benefit greatly from using a vision system. Optics based systems provide information at a spatial and temporal resolution higher than their acoustic counterparts. At present, they are the best option when high precision maneuvering and manipulation is needed, if there is good visibility. This paper presents a new system designed to provide visual information in submarine tasks such as navigation, surveying, mapping and intervention. The main advantages of our system, called Fugu-f (Fugu flexible), are its robustness in both the mechanical structure and the software components, its flexibility, since it is installed as an external module and is adaptable to different vehicles and missions, and its capacity to operate in real-time. Experiments of surveying and object manipulation carried out in real conditions in the context of the TRIDENT project show the suitability of the system and its scientific and industrial potential applications.</p

A toolbox for glider data processing and management

peer reviewedWe present a complete set of freely available MATLAB/Octave scripts called the SOCIB Glider Toolbox (https://github.com/socib/glider_toolbox). This new toolbox automates glider data processing functions, including thermal lag correction, quality control and graphical outputs. While the scientific value of the glider platform has been proven, the experience for the glider data user is far from perfect or routine. Over the last 10 years, ocean gliders have evolved such that they are now considered a core component of multi-platform observing systems and multi-disciplinary process studies ; we now have a generic processing system that appropriately complements glider capability. In an ideal world, a simple connection to a glider would provide oceanographic data ready for scientific application in an intuitive, familiar format; the reality has been somewhat different. Up till now users have faced several time-consuming tasks that prevent them from directly and efficiently extracting new oceanographic knowledge from the acquired data. The SOCIB glider toolbox covers all stages of the data management process, including: metadata aggregation, raw data download, data processing, data correction and the automatic generation of data products and figures. It is designed to be operated either in real-time or in delayed mode, and to process data from two of the most widely used and commercially exploited glider platforms, Slocum gliders and SeaGliders. The SOCIB glider toolbox is ready to accelerate glider data integration and promote oceanographic discovery

Oceanographic data management at the Balearic Islands Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB)

peer reviewe