Towards a Digital Mission: 3D ROV Mission Planning and Tracking

In this paper, we present a novel assistance tool for ROV pilots and operators with a focus on pre-flight process planning and post-flight reporting. While being useful in wide variety of applications, we developed our tool specifically with situations too complex for autonomous execution in mind. For this purpose, we developed an ontology representing missions on a high level, and in combination with an analysis of the functional requirements built a working software prototype that includes abstract mission planning, real-time mission status tracking and post-mission replay and analysis functions, all in a simulated three-dimensional environment. Our approach is agnostic to the kinds of tasks carried out during the mission and the kinds of underwater structures to operate on.