Seminar: Informative Benthic AUV Surveys, 28th October, 1p

When: Thursday 28th of October, 1pm AEDT

Where: This seminar will be presented online via Zoom, RSVP here.

Speaker: Jackson Shields

Title: Informative Benthic AUV Surveys

Abstract:
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are utilised for benthic (seafloor) surveys, where the vehicle collects optical imagery of near the seafloor. Due to the small-sensor footprint of the cameras and the vast areas to be surveyed, these AUVs cannot densely cover the survey area. Therefore a sparse but effective sampling strategy is necessary. This work focuses on utilising remotely-sensed data to plan informative surveys for AUVs. Before any data is collected, surveys are planned that maximise the exploration of the bathymetric feature space. Once data has been collected, habitat models are developed that relate the remotely-sensed data to the in-situ habitat observations obtained from the AUV imagery. Using the uncertainty of these habitat models, informative AUV surveys are created where the objective of the survey is to improve the underlying habitat model.

Bio:
Jackson Shields is a PhD candidate in the marine group at ACFR. His PhD is focussed on using remotely-sensed data for habitat modelling and informative path planning for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). He is also developing a simplified AUV for environmental monitoring that is easily deployable and operable.