Experimental Activity with a Rover for Underwater Inspection

The inspection of underwater structures is often hampered by harsh environmental conditions, limited access, high costs, and inherent safety issues. This paper focuses on the use of an underwater rover to implement automated imaging techniques for facilitating inspections. The application of such techniques can significantly improve the state of monitoring, reduce operational complexity, and partially offset the financial burden of periodic inspections. To date, there has been very little work on image-based techniques for detecting and quantifying the extent of structural damage, particularly in the submerged part of marine structures. This work seeks to address this knowledge gap through the development and performance evaluation of underwater photogrammetry. The development of the research has been carried out using the FIFISH V6 rover with the Brave 7 camera, which has all the characteristics required for successful photogrammetry. To connect the sensor to the rover, a support was designed accordingly. Finally, experimental photogrammetry tests of an anchor were carried out and compared, both in and out of the sea environment, to validate the model presented. The results obtained so far confirm the validity of the proposed approach and encourage the future development of this apparatus for underwater inspections.