Hyper-Accurate Bio-Acoustic Localization and Mapping in Hybrid ROV/AUV Systems for Coral Reef Characterization

**Abstract:** This paper presents a novel framework for enhancing the accuracy of underwater localization and mapping in hybrid ROV/AUV systems – specifically tailored for detailed coral reef characterization. Leveraging a fusion of synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) data with advanced bio-acoustic signal processing (BAPS), the proposed system dramatically reduces localization error and generates high-resolution 3D maps with improved reef morphology detection. A key innovation is the adaptive Kalman filter (AKF) that integrates SAS data for long-range navigation and BAPS data for fine-grained reef feature localization, achieving a reported 10x improvement in coral structure resolution and a 50% reduction in overall mapping error compared to existing systems solely reliant on inertial navigation systems (INS) and visual SLAM. This methodology improves the efficiency and granularity of reef health assessment and targeted restoration efforts, showing a pathway to scalable, high-resolution coral reef monitoring and conservation.