Edge Line Information based Underwater Landmark for UUV†

This paper addresses an underwater landmark for updating UUV positioning information. A method is proposed in which the landmark’s cubic shape and edge are recognized. The reliability, installation load, and management of landmark design were taken into consideration in order to assess practical applications of the landmark. Landmark recognition was based on topological features. The straight line recognition confirmed the landmark’s location and enabled an UUV to accurately estimated its underwater position with respect to the landmark. An efficient recognition method is proposed, which provides real-time processing with limited UUV computing pow-er. An underwater experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the proposed method’s reliability and accuracy